I think the first duty of society is justice.

Revolutions are not made: they come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak. It comes out of the past. Its foundations are laid far back.

The reformer is careless of numbers, disregards popularity, and deals only with ideas, conscience, and common sense. He feels, with Copernicus, that as God waited long for an interpreter, so he can wait for his followers.

Law is nothing unless close behind it stands a warm, living public opinion.

What is fanaticism today is the fashionable creed tomorrow, and trite as the multiplication table a week after.

Republics exist only on the tenure of being constantly agitated.... There is no republican road to safety but in constant distrust.

Today it is not big business that we have to fear. It is big government.