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

A society which reverences the attainment of riches as the supreme felicity will naturally be disposed to regard the poor as damned ... if only to justify itself for making their life a hell.

Freedom for the pike is death for the minnow.

One of the main truths of all education is that if the young are not always right, the old are always wrong.

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.

The certainties of one age are the problems of the next.

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