Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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.

Piety sometimes gives birth to scruples, and faith to superstition, when they are not directed by wisdom and knowledge.

Remember that one touch of ill-nature makes the whole world kin.

Save for the wild force of Nature, nothing moves in this world that is not Greek in its origin.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing