“The nation which indulges toward another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave.”

We must consult our means rather than our wishes.

One of the expedients of party to acquire influence, within particular districts, is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.

Human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.

A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.

Perseverance and spirit have done wonders in all ages.

Paper money has had the effect in your state that it will ever have, to ruin commerce, oppress the honest, and open the door to every species of fraud and injustice.

I conceive a knowledge of books is the basis upon which other knowledge is to be built.

Man is the religious animal.

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it.

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

We have probably had too good an opinion of human nature in forming our confederation.

Things in life will not always run smoothly. Sometimes we will be rising toward the heights—then all will seem to reverse itself and start downward.

Associate yourself with men of good quality, if you esteem your own reputation; for ‘tis better to be alone than in bad company.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence. It is force. And force, like fire, is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

The pandemic can’t stop your spirit, it can’t dim your light, and it can’t take your degree away from you.

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

Do not measure yourself by success, failure, or a degree. Measure your life by the dreams you have.

Humanity is in the highest degree irrational, so that there is no prospect of influencing it by reasonable arguments. Against prejudice one can do nothing.

We have all struggled with our worth to some degree.

We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.

To suppose that the eye could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.