Every man who has power is impelled to abuse it.

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.

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.

Democracy is corrupted not only when the spirit of equality is corrupted, but likewise when they fall into a spirit of extreme equality.

Shine forth your light before all beings.

...free will does not mean one will, but many wills conflicting in one man. Freedom cannot be conceived simply.

The genius idea of industrialism was the concept of the Model T: In exchange for something cheap and well-made, we'd forgo unique, lovely design.

My mother's white, and she didn't know how to do my hair, so I had something that I always call white-mama hair.

Who will not suffer labor in this world, let him not be born.

I shook my head no. For minutes, neither of us spoke a word. It breathed between us, what he had said, the pain of a life suppressed, of happiness never to be.

Consult your dragon before you wager his hide.

The globally constituted accident can be compared to what people who work at the stock exchange call 'systemic risk'.

The superiority of some men is merely local. They are great because their associates are little.

Where is the Life we lost in living?