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

Dullness in matters of government is a good sign, and not a bad one - in particular, dullness in parliamentary government is a test of its excellence, an indication of its success.

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

Efficiency in an assembly requires a solid mass of steady votes; and these are collected by a deferential attachment to particular men, or by a belief in the principles that those men represent, and they are maintained by fear of those men - by the fear that if you vote against them, you may soon yourself have no vote at all.

You may talk of the tyranny of Nero and Tiberius; but the real tyranny is the tyranny of your next-door neighbor.

When great questions end, little parties begin.

Conquest is the missionary of valor, and the hard impact of military virtues beats meanness out of the world.