Yet this corporate being, though so insubstantial to our senses, binds, in Burkes words, a man to his country with ties which though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. That is why young men die in battle for their countrys sake and why old men plant trees they will never sit under.

Almost always tradition is nothing but a record and a machine-made imitation of the habits that our ancestors created.

The simple opposition between the people and big business has disappeared because the people themselves have become so deeply involved in big business.

A man cannot sleep in his cradle: whatever is useful must in the nature of life become useless.

Many a time I have wanted to stop talking and find out what I really believed.

We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead, we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilisations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern.

The first principle of a civilized state is that power is legitimate only when it is under contract.