The common vice of democracy is disregard for morality.

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.

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.

The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.

Towns were the nursery of freedom.

The reward of history is that it releases and relieves us from present strife.

Authority that does not exist for Liberty is not authority but force.