The common interests very largely elude public opinion entirely, and can be managed only by a specialised class.

The self-evident truth which makes men invincible is that inalienably they are inviolable persons.

Men fall into a routine when they are tired and slack: it has all the appearance of activity with few of its burdens.

A state is absolute in the sense which I have in mind when it claims the right to a monopoly of all the force within the community, to make war, to make peace, to conscript life, to tax, to establish and disestablish property, to define crime, to punish disobedience, to control education, to supervise the family, to regulate personal habits, and to censor opinions. The modern state claims all of these powers, and, in the matter of theory, there is no real difference in the size of the claim between communists, fascists, and Democrats.

The press does not tell us what to think, it tells us what to think about.

Once you touch the biographies of human beings, the notion that political beliefs are logically determined collapses like a pricked balloon.

The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it the representative of a whole class.