A sudden contrivance of a new, suitable, and enduring constitution is an enterprise beyond the forces of the human mind.
In any event, I came to the conclusion that if we should ever discover the one we need it would not be through some fashionable theory.

The point is, if it exists, to discover it, and not to put it to a vote.

To do that would not only be pretentious it would be useless; history and nature will do it for us; it is for us to adapt ourselves to them, as it is certain they will accommodate themselves to us.

The social and political mold, into which a nation may enter and remain, is not subject to its will, but determined by its character and its past.

It is essential that, even in its least traits, it should be shaped on the living material to which it is applied; otherwise it will burst and fall to pieces.