A man can be trusted only up to low-water mark.

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

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

History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority.

I saw in States' rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy.... Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.

Whenever a single definite object is made the supreme end of the State, be it the advantage of a class, the safety of the power of the country, the greatest happiness of the greatest number, or the support of any speculative idea, the State becomes for the time inevitably absolute. Liberty alone demands for its realization the limitation of the public authority, for liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition.