Nobody will understand parliamentary government who fancies it an easy thing, a natural thing, a thing not needing explanation. - Walter Bagehot

An ancient and ever-altering constitution is like an old man who still wears with attached fondness clothes in the fashion of his youth: what you see of him is the same; what you do not see is wholly altered.

The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people who can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.

Free government is self-government. A government of the people by the people. The best government of this sort is that which the people think best.