Progress, the religion of those who have none.

Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.

I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men, with a favorable presumption that they do no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way against holders of power...power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.

A convinced man differs from a prejudiced man as an honest man from a liar.

A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom

Machiavelli's teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.