Would it be possible to stand still on one spot more majestically — while simulating a triumphant march forward — than it is done by the two English Houses of Parliament? – Alexander Herzen
No one is to blame. It is neither their fault nor ours. It is the misfortune of being born when a whole world is dying. – Alexander Herzen
Unaware of the absurdity of it, we introduce our own petty household rules into the economy of the universe for which the life of generations, peoples, of entire planets, has no importance in relation to the general development. – Alexander Herzen
Liberalism, austere in political trifles, has learned ever more artfully to unite a constant protest against the government with a constant submission to it. – Alexander Herzen
The American doctrinaire is the converse of the American demagogue, and, in this way, is scarcely less injurious to the public. The first deals in poetry, the last in cant. He is as much a visionary on one side, as the extreme theoretical democrat is a visionary on the other. – James Fenimore Cooper