At all times sincere friends of freedom have been rare, and its triumphs have been due to minorities, that have prevailed by associating themselves with auxiliaries whose objects often differed from their own; and this association, which is always dangerous, has sometimes been disastrous.

Despotic power is always accompanied by corruption of morality.

Moral precepts are constant through the ages and not obedient to circumstances.

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

The wisdom of divine rule appears not in the perfection but in the improvement of the world... History is the true demonstration of Religion.

History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end...liberty is the only object which benefits all alike, and provokes no sincere opposition...The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. ~ Every class is unfit to govern ... Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men.