Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Everybody likes to get as much power as circumstances allow, and nobody will vote for a self-denying ordinance.

There are many things the government cant do, many good purposes it must renounce. It must leave them to the enterprise of others. It cannot feed the people. It cannot enrich the people. It cannot teach the people. It cannot convert the people.

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

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

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.

Though oppression may give rise to violent and repeated outbreaks, like the convulsions of a man in pain, it cannot mature a settled purpose and plan of regeneration, unless a new notion of happiness is joined to the sense of present evil.