Advice to Persons About to Write History – Don’t.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end. It is not for the sake of a good public administration that it is required, but for the security in the pursuit of the highest objects of civil society, and of private life.

There is no error so monstrous that it fails to find defenders among the ablest men. Imagine a congress of eminent celebrities, such as More, Bacon, Grotius, Pascal, Cromwell, Bossuet, Montesquieu, Jefferson, Napoleon, Pitt, etc. The result would be an Encyclopedia of Error.

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

A people averse to the institution of private property is without the first elements of freedom.

It is very easy to speak words of wisdom from a comfortable distance, when one sees no reality, no details, none of the effect on men’s minds.

I’m not a driven businessman, but a driven artist. I never think about money. Beautiful things make money.

Machiavelli’s teaching would hardly have stood the test of Parliamentary government, for public discussion demands at least the profession of good faith.

Socialism easily accepts despotism. It requires the strongest execution of power – power sufficient to interfere with property.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.