The affairs of the world are no more than so much trickery, and a man who toils for money or honor or whatever else in deference to the wishes of others, rather than because his own desire or needs lead him to do so, will always be a fool.

All the ills of democracy can be cured by more democracy.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

Natural rights is simple nonsense: natural and imprescriptible rights, rhetorical nonsense—nonsense upon stilts.