There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are read more

There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it is a good world and would like to preserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change. The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character, appearance, health and so on.

Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to read more

Anyone that wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.

Concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth.

Concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth.

Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.

Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made.

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small read more

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem, it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.

Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; read more

Make men wise, and by that very operation you make them free. Civil liberty follows as a consequence of this; no usurped power can stand against the artillery of opinion.

Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against read more

Government, in its very essence, is opposed to all increase in knowledge. Its tendency is always towards permanence and against change...[T]he progress of humanity, far from being the result of government, has been made entirely without its aid and in the face if its constant and bitter opposition.

He is free who knows how to keep in his own hand the power to decide, at each step, the read more

He is free who knows how to keep in his own hand the power to decide, at each step, the course of his life, and who lives in a society which does not block the exercise of that power.

I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to read more

I'm proud that I'm a politician. A politician is a man who understands government, and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead 10 or 15 years.