“Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.”

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.

One of the most ordinary weaknesses of the human intellect is to seek to reconcile contrary principles, and to purchase peace at the expense of logic.

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.

I have only one passion, the love of liberty and human dignity.

The tie of language is perhaps the strongest and the most durable that can unite mankind.

I should have loved freedom, I believe, at all times, but in the time in which we live I am ready to worship it.

Nothing is so dangerous as that of violence employed by well-meaning people for beneficial objects.

Righteous women in their circle of influence, beginning in the home, can turn the world around.

If I were asked to what the singular prosperity and growing strength of Americans ought mainly to be attributed, I should reply: To the superiority of their women.

Never think of pain or danger or enemies a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.

There is nothing more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends.

What are friends ? Friends are people that you think are your friends but they really your enemies, with secret indentities.

He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.

The greatest enemy of clear language is insincerity.

That’s my attitude on the military. I don’t like telling the enemy what I’m doing.

You can love a person dear to you with a human love, but an enemy can only be loved with divine love.