The possession of unlimited power corrodes the conscience, hardens the heart, and confounds the understanding.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.

The science of politics is the one science that is deposited by the streams of history, like the grains of gold in the sand of a river; and the knowledge of the past, the record of truths revealed by experience, is eminently practical, as an instrument of action and a power that goes to making the future.

Liberty and good government do not exclude each other; and there are excellent reasons why they should go together. Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.

Many things are better for silence than for speech: others are better for speech than for stationery.

Live both in the future and the past. Who does not live in the past does not live in the future.

History is not only a particular branch of knowledge, but a particular mode and method of knowledge in other branches.