The rule of law bakes no bread, it is unable to distribute loaves or fishes (it has none), and it cannot protect itself against external assault, but it remains the most civilized and least burdensome conception of a state yet to be devised.

Political action involves mental vulgarity, not merely because it entails the occurrence and support of those who are mentally vulgar, but because of the simplification of human life implied in even the best of it purposes.

Poetry is a sort of truancy, a dream within the dream of life, a wild flower planted among our wheat.

History is what the evidence compels us to believe.

The man of conservative temperament believes that a known good is not lightly to be surrendered for an unknown better.

Economics is not an attempt to generalize human desires or human behavior; but to generalize the phenomena of price.

In political activity, then, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea; there is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place nor appointed destination. The enterprise is to keep afloat on an even keel.