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.

All people are most credulous when they are most happy.

Not only does a bureaucracy tend to under-government in point of quality; it tends to over-government in point of quantity.

Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.

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.

The whole history of civilization is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards