There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men.

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

A generous spirit prefers that his country should be poor, and weak, and of no account, but free, rather than powerful, prosperous, and enslaved.

History is not only a particular branch of knowledge, but a particular mode and method of knowledge in other branches.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

Government by idea tends to take in everything, to make the whole of society obedient to the idea. Spaces not so governed are unconquered, beyond the border, unconverted, a future danger.

Official truth is not actual truth.