Republics end through luxury; monarchies through poverty.

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.

Better to play dumb than to go as smartass… after all smartasses get what they deserve in the end.

O sleep O gentle sleep Nature's soft nurse.

Parents don't need government to raise their kids. That's their job. But government can help them protect their children from influences they may not want their kids exposed to.

From first to last it is a dish of rank materialism cleverly cooked up ... . And why is this done? For no other reason, I am sure, except to make us independent of a Creator.

You might be a redneck if your favorite T-shirt is offensive in thirteen states.

The first part of my name, Khalil Gibran, seems to be paying huge dividends in terms of the artistic life of the poet from whom my name was inspired.

Conquering others takes force, conquering yourself is true strength.

When you think about Puritanism, you must begin by getting rid of the slang term 'Puritanism' as applied to Victorian religious hypocrisy. This does not apply to seventeenth-century Puritanism.

Fighting the wild branches of a haunted tree is not something that every actor is confident enough to attack, literally and figuratively.

Allow for many paths to your goal. Do not fixate on one path, because then you are likely to give up when that path is blocked.