Americans are so enamored of equality that they would rather be equal in slavery than unequal in freedom.

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

No state of society or laws can render men so much alike but that education, fortune, and tastes will interpose some differences between them; and though different men may sometimes find it their interest to combine for the same purposes, they will never make it their pleasure.

The Americans combine the notions of religion and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive of one without the other.

When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.

What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class.

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

Nothing seems at first sight less important than the outward form of human actions, yet there is nothing upon which men set more store: they grow used to everything except to living in a society which has not their own manners.

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by private citizens.

In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

As one digs deeper into the national character of the Americans, one sees that they have sought the value of everything in this world only in the answer to this single question: how much money will it bring in?

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.

In politics shared hatreds are almost always the basis of friendships.

I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.

The whole life of an American is passed like a game of chance, a revolutionary crisis, or a battle.

An American cannot converse, but he can discuss, and his talk falls into a dissertation. He speaks to you as if he was addressing a meeting; and if he should chance to become warm in the discussion, he will say 'Gentlemen' to the person with whom he is conversing.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

We might want to figure out what are the positive effects of autism - mild cases.

We went from a world where almost nobody knew anything about computers to a world where almost all of us are computer geeks for a huge fraction of our day. And I'd like to see that happen with the digital world of biological molecules, too.

I always loved computers - it's something inside you.

Most people are excited about themselves. Personal genome will deliver for inexpensively something about science to which you can relate. Just like computers are becoming something to which you can relate. It should be even easier to relate to your own biology, and I hope that will be one of the ways we get broader literacy in science.

If we go into space, we need enhancements that handle radiation and osteoporosis... or else we're dead. So what seems like an enhancement in one generation becomes life and death in another generation.

I like to keep the median age in my lab low because they will indulge me in my dreams. They don't yet think things are impossible.

It's all too easy to dismiss the future. People confuse what's impossible today with what's impossible tomorrow.

Terrorism is not a public health threat, relative to cancer and heart disease and malaria and so forth.

I think something very simple that everybody can do is they can participate in medical research as subjects. Personal genome project, for example, will take on as many subjects as we can find.

I'm a champion for personal differences. I have no sympathy for drug companies that can't figure out how to make personalized medicine. We could generalize that to 'All society should be much more personalized.'

Happiness is just a positive perception from our brain. Some days, you will be unhappy. Our brain is a tool we use. It's not who we are.

Do what you do with love, and success is a natural symptom.

Honesty is the fastest way to prevent a mistake from turning into a failure.

Honesty is about the scars. It's about the blemishes. But it's more than just bragging about failure, which could be a form of ego. It's about truly helping people.

My feeling, based on my own experience, is that aiming for grandiosity is the fastest route to failure.

The people who don't know personal finance have TV shows about it.

The people who know personal finance hide the money very carefully.

The first rule of personal finance is that it's not personal and it's not financial. It's about your ability to make ten changes and not get too depressed over it.

Don't stay at the job for safe salary increases over time. That will never get you where you want - freedom from financial worry. Only free time, imagination, creativity, and an ability to disappear will help you deliver value that nobody ever delivered before in the history of mankind.

Your competition is not other people but the time you kill, the ill will you create, the knowledge you neglect to learn, the connections you fail to build, the health you sacrifice along the path, your inability to generate ideas, the people around you who don't support and love your efforts, and whatever god you curse for your bad luck.

When I was 7 years old, I plagiarized, word for word, stories from science fiction magazines so my teachers would think I was smart.

Technology, outsourcing, a growing temp staffing industry, productivity efficiencies, have all replaced the middle class.

Don't time travel into the past, roaming through the nuances as if they can change. Don't bookmark pages you've already read.

Don't forget: when you start a website, it's not yet a trusted site. So you have to bring people from a trusted site to your site to build up the trust in your site.

If two people believe in the same story, they might be thousands of miles apart and total strangers, but they still have a sense they can trust each other.

I always imagine a good leader is surrounded by people who call their mothers at the end of the day and tell them, 'Mom, you can't believe what I did today. Let me tell you about it.'

Poker is a skill game pretending to be a chance game.