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

We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man’s support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.

If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence.

Generally speaking, only simple conceptions can grip the mind of a nation. An idea that is clear and precise even though false will always have greater power in the world than an idea that is true but complex.

When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.

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

I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.

The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.

I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.

Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.

Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.

If I were asked to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.

The last thing a political party gives up is its vocabulary.

Everybody feels the evil, but no one has courage or energy enough to seek the cure.

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.

Democrats are a big-tent party. You know, I’m not trying to impose an ideology on all, you know, several hundred members of Congress.

I’m not a registered Republican or Democrat. I don’t even vote.

Your political system is actually too democratic. The fact that Americans vote on every bill and proposition can prolong bigotry indefinitely, especially where it is aimed at minority groups.

Our society is connecting workers with the products people consume and recognizing workers for their contributions. It is important to do that, and to have organized labor – a middle class – to preserve our democracy.

The way the Queens Democratic party machine has worked, they operate on a politics of exclusion.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

If we don’t have workers organized into labor unions, we’re in great peril of losing our democracy.