“I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong.”

Gratitude, warm, sincere, intense, when it takes possession of the bosom, fills the soul to overflowing and scarce leaves room for any other sentiment or thought.

Move or die is the language of our Maker in the constitution of our bodies.

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone.

Defeat appears to me preferable to total inaction.

Above all, except the wife and children, I want to see my books.

To furnish the means of acquiring knowledge is, the greatest benefit that can be conferred upon mankind. It prolongs life itself and enlarges the sphere of existence.

The will of the people is the source and the happiness of the people the end of all legitimate government upon earth.

Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.

I read my eyes out and can’t read half enough neither. The more one reads the more one sees we have to read.

I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.

To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so, is something worse.

It was the special purpose of Christ’s appearance upon earth to bring immortality to light.

Be a great speaker, become a leader.

Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round, till not a slave shall on this earth be found.

Thus situated, the perilous experiment must be made. Let me make it with full deliberations, and be prepared for the consequences.

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

The dignity of man into your hands is given; Oh, keep it well, with you it sinks or lifts itself to heaven.

How evil life must be if it were indeed necessary that such imploring cries, such cries of physical and moral wretchedness, should ever and ever ascend to heaven!

I am my own heaven and hell!

Have Faith. Where’er thy bark is driven, – The calm’s disport, the tempest’s mirth, – Know this: God rules the hosts of heaven, The habitants of earth.

Innocence has a friend in heaven.

O the eye’s light is a noble gift of Heaven! All beings live from light, each fair created thing; the very plants turn with a joyful transport to the light.

Every musician wants to do something which will hold up for a long time, and I guess we did it with ‘Stairway to Heaven.’

We must bear what Heaven sends.