When men have gone so far as to talk as though their idols have come to life, it is time that someone broke them.

It is probable that democracy owes more to nonconformity than to any other single movement.

...and was disposed too often to idealize as a virtue that habit of mean subservience to wealth and social position which, after more than half a century of political democracy, is still the characteristic and odious vice of the Englishman.

If a man has important work, and enough leisure and income to enable him to do it properly, he is in possession of as much happiness as is good for any of the children of Adam.

Clever men are impressed in their differences from their fellows. Wise men are conscious of their resemblance to them.

Bankruptcies of governments have, on the whole, done less harm to mankind than their ability to raise loans.

Private property is a necessary institution, at least in a fallen world; men work more and dispute less when goods are private than when they are in common.