It is not because men's desires are strong that they act ill; it is because their consciences are weak.

No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.

Good laws lead to the making of better ones; bad ones bring about worse.

Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.

He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.

Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.

Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.

You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.

In all intellectual debates, both sides tend to be correct in what they affirm, and wrong in what they deny.

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive.

Liberty does not exist in the absence of morality.

A party of order or stability, and a party of progress or reform, are both necessary elements of a healthy state of political life.

Democracy arose from men's thinking that if they are equal in any respect, they are equal absolutely.

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes

(...) when a man is denied the right to live the life he believes in, he has no choice but to become an outlaw.

Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.

Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one.