False principles, which correspond with the bad as well as with the just aspirations of mankind, are a normal and necessary element in the social life of nations.

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.

Make the most of the best and the best of the worst, and keep your standards high. Never settle for anything less than you deserve or are capable of achieving.

There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends but he joyeth the more and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friends but he grieveth the less.

If God, like a father, denies us what we want now it is in order to give us some far better thing later on. The will of God, we can rest assured, is invariably a better thing.

Yet, our achievements also mask many continuing failings and seem to expose more future dangers.

My mind can take no hold on the present world, nor rest in it a moment, but my whole nature rushes onward with irresistible force towards a future and better state of being.

Contradictions in human character are one of its most consistent notes.

Easy is right. Begin right and you are easy. . . . Easy is right means natural is right, effortlessness is right, egolessness is right.

Most of my adult life I had this towering contempt for America.

Even in the most perfect love one person loves less profoundly than the other.

Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of justice and mercy.