In America the majority raises formidable barriers around the liberty of opinion; within these barriers an author may write what he pleases, but woe to him if he goes beyond them.
There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.
There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.
The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.
No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them; and though different men may sometimes find it their interest to combine for the same purposes, they will never make it their pleasure.
The Indian knew how to live without wants, to suffer without complaint, and to die singing.
History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.
No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.
The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.
Those that despise people will never get the best out of others and themselves.
It is the dissimilarities and inequalities among men which give rise to the notion of honor; as such differences become less, it grows feeble; and when they disappear, it will vanish too.
I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.
Grant me thirty years of equal division of inheritances and a free press, and I will provide you with a republic.
Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.
The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.
I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.
In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.
What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.
In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.
