“My toast would be, may our country always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.”

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.

Virtue is not always amiable.

No man is entirely free from weakness and imperfection in this life.

We understand now, we’ve been made to understand, and to embrace the understanding that who we are is who we were.

If the fundamental principles in the Declaration of Independence, as self-evident truths, are real truths, the existence of slavery, in any form, is a wrong.

A politician in this country must be the man of a party. I would fain be the man of my whole country.

Go on and improve in everything worthy.

To be good, and to do good, is all we have to do.

A dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people, than under the forbidding appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of Government.

I’m pretty sure JAY Z don’t wanna rap right now.

The state is a fragile organization, and the statesman does not have the moral right to risk its survival on ethical restraint.

I am willing to serve my country, but my worship I reserve for Right which is far greater than my country. To worship my country as a god is to bring a curse upon it.

Respect for the rights of others is a lofty principle; but envy is a primal urge (p114)

No one should negotiate their dreams. Dreams must be free to fly high. No government, no legislature, has a right to limit your dreams. You should never agree to surrender your dreams.

Bill Clinton observed that when people are uncertain, they’d rather have leaders who are strong and wrong than right and weak.

The rights of neutrality will only be respected, when they are defended by an adequate power. A nation, despicable by its weakness, forfeits even the privilege of being neutral.