History, to be above evasion or dispute, must stand on documents, not on opinions.

Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

The history of institutions is often a history of deception and illusions; for their virtue depends on the ideas that produce and on the spirit that preserves them, and the form may remain unaltered when the substance has passed away.

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.

Self-preservation and self-denial: the basis of all political economy.

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.