"The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please: we ought to see what it will please them to do, before we risk congratulations"
"Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all"
"I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business"
"He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame; a passion which is the instinct of all great souls"
"Circumstances give in reality to every political principle its distinguishing color and discriminating effect. The circumstances are what render every civil and political scheme beneficial or noxious to mankind"
"But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint"
