“Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.”

The most perilous moment for a bad government is when it seeks to mend its ways. Only consummate statecraft can enable a king to save his throne when, after a long spell of oppression, he sets out to improve the lot of his subjects.

As for me, I am deeply a democrat; this is why I am in no way a socialist. Democracy and socialism cannot go together. You can’t have it both ways. Socialism is a new form of slavery.

The surface of American society is covered with a layer of democratic paint, but from time to time one can see the old aristocratic colours breaking through.

America is a country where they have freedom of speech but everyone says the same thing.

There is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America.

Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: “Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I.”

The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.

I have seen Americans making great and sincere sacrifices for the key common good and a hundred times I have noticed that, when needs be, they almost always gave each other faithful support.

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.

Every central government worships uniformity: uniformity relieves it from inquiry into an infinity of details.

America is great because she is good.

We can state with conviction, therefore, that a man’s support for absolute government is in direct proportion to the contempt he feels for his country.

If an American was condemned to confine his activity to his own affairs, he would be robbed of one half of his existence.

Generally speaking, only simple conceptions can grip the mind of a nation. An idea that is clear and precise even though false will always have greater power in the world than an idea that is true but complex.

When I refuse to obey an unjust law, I do not contest the right of the majority to command, but I simply appeal from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of mankind.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

The history of African-American repression in this country rose from government-sanctioned racism. Jim Crow laws were a product of bigoted state and local governments.

To pardon the oppressor is to deal harshly with the oppressed.

The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.

I’m really disturbed about the gay marriage thing. Because I think gay people should get married, cause it’s their own business. Because as a Black man, I think you’ve got to be against any form of discrimination.

While women were tortured, drowned and burned by the thousands, scarce one wizard to a hundred was ever condemned … The same distinction of sex appears in our own day. One code of morals for men, another for women.

I have done a great deal of work, as much as a man, but did not get so much pay. I used to work in the field and bind grain, keeping up with the cradler; but men doing no more, got twice as much pay. We do as much, we eat as much, we want as much.

In every human Beast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance.

I’m not in favor of any discrimination of any form.