Liberty is a product of order.
The crossroads of trade are the meeting place of ideas, the attrition ground of rival customs and beliefs; diversities beget conflict, comparison, thought; superstitions cancel one another, and reason begins.
[H]istory assures us that civilizations decay quite leisurely.
Every form of government tends to perish by excess of its basic principle.
There is no real philosophy until the mind turns around and examines itself.
It is one of the most culpable oversights of nature that virtue and beauty so often come in separate packages.