Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth.

Liberty is rendered even more precious by the recollection of servitude.

I criticize by creation - not by finding fault.

It is graceful in a man to think and to speak with propriety, to act with deliberation, and in every occurrence of life to find out and persevere in the truth. On the other hand, to be imposed upon, to mistake, to falter, and to be deceived, is as ungraceful as to rave or to be insane.

The strictest law often causes the most serious wrong

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

A bureaucrat is the most despicable of men, though he is needed as vultures are needed, but one hardly admires vultures whom bureaucrats so strangely resemble. I have yet to meet a bureaucrat who was not petty, dull, almost witless, crafty or stupid, an oppressor or a thief, a holder of little authority in which he delights, as a boy delights in possessing a vicious dog. Who can trust such creatures?