Never forget that the purpose for which a man lives is the improvement of the man himself, so that he may go out of this world having, in his great sphere or his small one, done some little good for his fellow creatures and labored a little to diminish the sin and sorrow that are in the world.

Letter to the committee in charge of the celebration of the centennial of the American Constitution. I have always regarded that Constitution as the most remarkable work known to me in modern times to have been produced by the human intellect, at a single stroke (so to speak), in its application to political affairs.

No one ever became great except through many and great mistakes.

The oppression of a majority is detestable and odious; the oppression of a minority is only by one degree less detestable and odious.

To be engaged in opposing wrong affords...but a slender guarantee for being right.

From the time I took office as Chancellor of the Exchequer, I began to learn that the State held, in the face of the Bank and the City, an essentially false position as to finance. The Government itself was not to be a substantive power, but was to leave the Money Power supreme and unquestioned.

Be thorough in all you do; and remember that although ignorance often may be innocent, pretension is always despicable.