There is not a soul who does not have to beg alms of another, either a smile, a handshake, or a fond eye

Everything secret degenerates, even the administration of justice nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity

And remember, where you have a concentration of power in a few hands, all too frequently men with the mentality of gangsters get control. History has proven that. All power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely

In every age its (liberty's) progress has been beset by its natural enemies, by ignorance and superstition, by lust of conquest and by love of ease, by the strong man's craving for power, and the poor man's craving for food

Guard against the prestige of great names see that your judgments are your own and do not shrink from disagreement no trusting without testing

History must be our deliverer not only from the undue influence of other times, but from the undue influence of our own, from the tyranny of environment and the pressures of the air we breathe

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men

The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern

Be not content with the best book seek sidelights from the others have no favorites