None rule by force alone.
Before you ask if a man practices what he preaches, ask if what he preaches is worth practicing.
Our age, for all its weakness, reigns unchallenged in calumny and vitriol: no Mirabeaus, few Robespierres, and everywhere Marats.
A reader more intelligent than the writer will read more than the writer intended, a reader less intelligent will read less, and a reader equally intelligent will read something entirely different.
Punishment deters less the few who suffer it than the many who fear that they might.
In argument, as in battle, always leave a vanquished foe an avenue for orderly retreat.
Institutions are never repaired, only replaced.
Every great racket begins as a business, becomes a movement, and eventually degenerates into a cause.
To undermine a principle, profess fealty to it while insisting that every applicable case is a unique circumstance that dictates its temporary suspension.
An aphorism should look wrong to half its readers and obvious to the other half.