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

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power -- power sufficient to interfere with property.

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

The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. It is not the realisation of a political ideal: it is the discharge of a moral obligation.

Those who have more power are liable to sin more; no theorem in geometry is more certain than this.

We are not sure we are right until we have made the best case possible for those who are wrong.