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

The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority.

Liberty, next to religion has been the motive of good deeds and the common pretext of crime.

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.

Many men can no more be kept straight by spiritual motives than we can live without policemen.

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

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