“The real democratic American idea is, not that every man shall be on a level with every other man, but that every man shall have liberty to be what God made him, without hindrance.”

Greatness lies not in being strong, but in the right use of strength.

Sorrows, as storms, bring down the clouds close to the earth; sorrows bring heaven down close; and they are instruments of cleansing and purifying.

If you are idle, you are on the road to ruin; and there are few stopping-places upon it. It is rather a precipice than a road

There is no friendship, no love, like that of the parent for the child.

A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school for Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.

The mother’s heart is the child’s schoolroom.

Next to victory, there is nothing so sweet as defeat, if only the right adversary overcomes you.

Troubles are often the tools by which God fashions us for better things.

Your greatest pleasure is that which rebounds from hearts that you have made glad.

Find out what your temptations are, and you will find out largely what you are yourself.

You have come into a hard world. I know of only one easy place in it, and that is the grave.

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.

We let our blessings get mouldy, and then call them curses.

A man who cannot get angry is like a stream that cannot overflow, that is always turbid. Sometimes indignation is as good as a thunderstorm in summer, clearing and cooling the air.

Downright admonition, as a rule, is too blunt for the recipient.

The cynic is one who never sees a good quality in a man, and never fails to see a bad one. He is the human owl, vigilant in darkness and blind to light, mousing for vermin, and never seeing noble game.

The vote is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have.

The right to vote is the gift of democracy. Let us all go out and vote.

People should organize people to just turn up and participate in the democratic process. Knock on doors.

A great democracy has got to be progressive or it will soon cease to be great or a democracy.

There are fundamentals of democracy, and they should be understood universally in different countries.

Some of us gave a little blood for the right to participate in the democratic process.

If I don’t get along with Democrats, I’m sort of, like, out of business.

It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan.