Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

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.

The more a book is like an opium pipe, the more the Chinaman reader is satisfied with it and tends to discuss the quality of the drug rather than its lethargic effects.

You can choose when and when not to be stopped... Choose to be stopped after you die... when your work is done and done well.

Holy church-that mother who is also a queen because she is a king's bride.

It doesn't feel good when you have to struggle to get your pants on.

Fortitude. ... It means fixity of purpose. It means endurance. It means having the strength to live with what constrains you.

A stranger's rose is but a thorn.

I had to learn to forgive myself, not to judge, but to learn from the past. They showed me how vital it is to accept, be truthful, and love myself. So I could do the same with others.

According to a Wall Street Journal article some 59 percent of Americans don t own a single book. Not a cookbook or even the Bible.

If. A two-letter word for futility.

A slight failing in one virtue is enough to put all the others to sleep.