The finest opportunity ever given to the world was thrown away because the passion of equality made vain the hope for freedom.

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

Federalism is the best curb on democracy. [It] assigns limited powers to the central government. Thereby all power is limited. It excludes absolute power of the majority.

The most certain test by which we judge whether a country is really free is the amount of security enjoyed by minorities.

Socialism means slavery.

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern: every class is unfit to govern.

Men cannot be made good by the state, but they can easily be made bad. Morality depends on liberty.

It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority.

It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.

Feudalism made land the measure and the master of all things.

The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks.

I'd prefer to be alone by myself, than alone in a room full of people.

Trust yourself and try not to get lured off course by conflicting opinions that don't seem to sit right with you.

The need itself is not the call.

The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French.

Seek within, for the answer cannot be found without.

Revenge can only be found on the road to self-destruction.

No destiny attacks us from outside. But, within him, man bears his fate and there comes a moment when he knows himself vulnerable; and then, as in a vertigo, blunder upon blunder lures him.

I'm so sick and tired of hearing about slavery. You think slavery didn't exist in Africa? Even Indian tribes.

There is that unique moment when one confronts something new and astonishment begins.

But in simple substances the influence of one monad over another is ideal only.