There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people.

Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist. But from the absolute will of an entire people there is no appeal, no redemption, no refuge but treason.

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

Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.