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

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.

In charity to all mankind, bearing no malice or ill will to any human being, and even compassionating those who hold in bondage their fellow men, not knowing what they do.

Try and fail, but don’t fail to try.

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak, and that it is doing God’s service when it is violating all His laws.

If conscience disapproves, the loudest applauses of the world are of little value.

Posterity – you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.

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

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

But, though all our knowledge begins with experience, it by no means follows that all arises out of experience.

So, listen, to yourself and to those with whom you are speaking. Your wisdom then consists not of the knowledge you already have, but the continual search for knowledge, which is the highest form of wisdom.

I would rather excel in the knowledge of what is excellent than the extent of my power or possessions.

Ideologies are substitutes for true knowledge, and ideologues are always dangerous when they come to power, because a simple-minded I-know-it-all approach is no match for the complexity of existence.

Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.

Reading is not an end to itself, but a means to an end.

The process may seem strange and yet it is very true. I did not so much gain the knowledge of things by the words, as words by the experience I had of things.

It is always more difficult to fight successfully against Faith than against knowledge.