Mediocrity is a hand-rail.

It is necessary from the very nature of things that power should be a check to power.

The deterioration of every government begins with the decay of the principles on which it was founded.

We receive three educations, one from our parents, one from our school-masters, and one from the world. The third contradicts all that the first two teach us.

There is no crueler tyranny than that which is perpetuated under the shield of law and in the name of justice.

Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

In the state of nature... all men are born equal, but they cannot continue in this equality. Society makes them lose it, and they recover it only by the protection of the law.

A nation may lose its liberties in a day and not miss them in a century.

For a country, everything will be lost when the jobs of an economist and a banker become highly respected professions.

Liberty... is there only when there is no abuse of power.

Knowledge humanizes mankind, and reason inclines to mildness; but prejudices eradicate every tender disposition.

The hand that gives is among the hand that takes. Money has no fatherland, financiers are without patriotism and without decency, their sole object is gain.

Defending unpopular positions is what lawyers do

Walter Parmenter sometimes seemed to his daughter a restless subterranean force held together by rituals.

In thinking about His many blessings, you view God's work from a new perspective.

What is difficult? To keep a secret, to employ leisure well, to be able to bear an injury.

The poor are the only ones who suffer. And they're used to it.

Some 43 percent of voters in union households voted for President Bush in 2004, according to exit poll data.

People keep me going. I believe people are wonderful.

Chronic disease like a troublesome relative is something you can learn to manage but never quite escape.

Purpose in the human being is a much more complex phenomenon than what used to be called will power.