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

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

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

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

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

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.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

Do that which consists in taking no action, and order will prevail.

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.