A democratic despotism is like a theocracy: it assumes its own correctness.

Every banker knows that if he has to prove that he is worthy of credit, however good may be his arguments, in fact his credit is gone: but what we have requires no proof.

Royalty is a government in which the attention of the nation is concentrated on one person doing interesting actions. A Republic is a government in which that attention is divided between many, who are all doing uninteresting actions. Accordingly, so long as the human heart is strong and the human reason weak, Royalty will be strong because it appeals to diffused feeling, and Republics weak because they appeal to the understanding.

The great pleasure of life is doing for pleasure things I do not like to do.

So long as war is the main business of nations, temporary despotism - despotism during the campaign - is indispensable.

But of all nations in the world the English are perhaps the least a nation of pure philosophers.

It is often said that men are ruled by their imaginations; but it would be truer to say they are governed by the weakness of their imaginations.