“It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do; but what humanity, reason, and justice tell me I ought to do.”

Flattery corrupts both the receiver and the giver.

Silence is golden but when it threatens your freedom it’s yellow.

This sort of people are so taken up with their theories about the rights of man that they have totally forgotten his nature.

They defend their errors as if they were defending their inheritance.

The great must submit to the dominion of prudence and of virtue, or none will long submit to the dominion of the great.

Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, it costs nothing.

There is nothing that God has judged good for us that He has not given us the means to accomplish, both in the natural and the moral world.

To complain of the age we live in, to murmur at the present possessors of power, to lament the past, to conceive extravagant hopes of the future, are the common dispositions of the greatest part of mankind.

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed.

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.

All the forces of darkness need to succeed … is for the people to do nothing.

History is a pact between the dead, the living, and the yet unborn.

There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.

It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.

When you fear something, learn as much about it as you can. Knowledge conquers fear.

It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.

I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul.

The essential humanity of men can be protected and preserved only where government must answer, not just to the wealthy, not just to those of a particular religion, or a particular race, but to all its people.

Anytime you work with animals, you begin to see more humanity in them.

Homophobia is like racism and anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry in that it seeks to dehumanize a large group of people, to deny their humanity, their dignity and personhood.

I know that my son was an honest person and an honest artist, and what he gave from himself through his art was the depth of his humanity.

The American flag has not been planted on foreign soil to acquire more territory but for humanity’s sake.

Genius is that which forces the inertia of humanity to learn.

You told me you were only human. What I wish I had told you was that I was looking for humane.