It is the knowledge that all men have weaknesses and that many have vices that makes government necessary.

Government is an evil; it is only the thoughtlessness and vices of men that make it a necessary evil. When all men are good and wise, government will of itself decay.

Learned men are the cisterns of knowledge, not the fountainheads

Every man's a valuable member of society who, by his observations, researches, and experiments, procures knowledge for men.

Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete.

We suffer primarily not from our vices or our weaknesses, but from our illusions. We are haunted, not by reality, but by those images we have put in their place.