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

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.

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

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

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.

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.

There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye.