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.

Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority...

Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.

The test of liberty is the position and security of minorities.

Opinions alter, manners change, creeds rise and fall, but the moral law is written on the tablets of eternity.

There should be a law to the People besides its own will.

In every age its (liberty's) progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food