“The Fate of good men who refuse to become involved in politics is to be ruled by evil men.”

We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.

A great empire and little minds go ill together.

The grave is a common treasury, to which we must all be taken.

The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered.

The tyranny of a multitude is a multiplied tyranny.

He that struggles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Good order is the foundation of all things.

Manners are of more importance than laws. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe.

But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restraint.

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.

I cannot conceive how any man can have brought himself to that pitch of presumption, to consider his country as nothing but carte blanche, upon which he may scribble whatever he pleases.

Equity money is dynamic and debt money is static.

The first and simplest emotion which we discover in the human mind, is curiosity.

True religion is the foundation of society. When that is once shaken by contempt, the whole fabric cannot be stable nor lasting.

It is a general popular error to suppose the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.

Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny.

Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.

There are a thousand forms of evil; there will be a thousand remedies.

Most men are not wicked, They are sleep-walkers, not evil evildoers.

Evil is whatever distracts.

Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil.

In America, with all of its evils and faults, you can still reach through the forest and see the sun. But we don’t know yet whether that sun is rising or setting for our country.

Have we not already seen enough of the fallacy and extravagance of those idle theories which have amused us with promises of an exemption from the imperfections, weaknesses and evils incident to society in every shape?

There is no evildoer who could not be made good for something.