To prove that the Americans ought not to be free, we are obliged to deprecate the value of freedom itself. |
He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper. |
All that is necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing. |
I dread our own power and our own ambition; I dread our being too much dreaded. ... We may say that we shall not abuse this astonishing and hitherto unheard-of-power. But every other nation will think we shall abuse it. It is impossible but that, sooner or later, this state of things must produce a combination against us which may end in our ruin. |
Power gradually extirpates for the mind every humane and gentle virtue. |
Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none. |
The people never give up their liberties, but under some delusion. |
The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded. |
Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion. |
Those who have been intoxicated with power... can never willingly abandon it. |
The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny. |
It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare. |
The great inlet by which a colour for oppression has entered into the world is by one man's pretending to determine concerning the happiness of another. |
People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors. |
There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men. |
There are three estates in Parliament but in the Reporters' Gallery yonder there sits a Fourth Estate more important far than they all. It is not a figure of speech or witty saying, it is a literal fact, very momentous to us in these times. |
They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance. |
Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. |
The only liberty that is valuable is a liberty connected with order; that not only exists along with order and virtue, but which cannot exist at all without them. It inheres in good and steady government, as in its substance and vital principle. |
The greater the power the more dangerous the abuse. |
