The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.

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.

The form of government and the condition of society must always correspond. Social equality is therefore a postulate of pure democracy.

The true natural check on absolute democracy is the federal system, which limits the central government by the powers reserved, and the state governments by the powers they have ceded.

Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

History provides neither compensation for suffering nor penalties for wrong.

Self-preservation and self-denial: the basis of all political economy.