...no civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.

...no civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.

Glory is the child of peril.

Glory is the child of peril.

Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems read more

Discontent is likely to be highest when misery is bearable; when conditions have so improved that an ideal state seems almost within reach. A grievance is most poignant when almost redressed. De Tocqueville in his researches into the state of society in France before the revolution was struck by the discovery that "in no one of the periods which have followed the Revolution of 1789 has the national prosperity of France augmented more rapidly than it did in the twenty years preceding that event." He is forced to conclude that "the French found their position the more intolerable the better it became.

I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. read more

I believe there is a limit beyond which free speech cannot go, but it's a limit that's very seldom mentioned. It's the point where free speech begins to collide with the right to privacy. I don't think there are any other conditions to free speech. I've got a right to say and believe anything I please, but I haven't got a right to press it on anybody else. .... Nobody's got a right to be a nuisance to his neighbors.

Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Nobody can be trusted with unlimited power. The more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. read more

Nobody can be trusted with unlimited power. The more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom.

All that Communism needs to make it successful is someone to feed and clothe it.

All that Communism needs to make it successful is someone to feed and clothe it.

The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of read more

The genius of a good leader is to leave behind him a situation which common sense, without the grace of genius, can deal with successfully.

So far as business and money are concerned, a country gains nothing by a successful war, even though that war read more

So far as business and money are concerned, a country gains nothing by a successful war, even though that war involves the acquisition of immense new provinces.