All quotes

The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class,—it is the cause of human kind, the very birthright of humanity.

No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family.

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision I have finally been included in “We, the people.”

No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense of public honor or by rude and indecent methods without protest and fatal disaffection in its own body.

The welfare of the weakest and the welfare of the most powerful are inseparably bound together.

When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.

in the field of public education the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.

The Amendment must draw its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.

Yet it is only intelligence and sympathy that can bring us closer to the source of human suffering, and teach us the ultimate way out of it.

Emancipation should make it possible for woman to be human in the truest sense.

Government is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the whole people.

Preeminently, the power of our advocacy reposes in our example; but no example, be it remembered, can be powerful for lasting good, whatever apparent advantages may be gained, which is not based upon eternal principles of right and justice.

The moral which I gained from the dialogue was the power of truth over the conscience of even a slaveholder.

It would be neither fitting nor efficacious for this Government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a program designed to place Europe on its feet economically. This is the business of the Europeans.

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil.

The grandest of these ideals is an unfolding American promise that everyone belongs, that everyone deserves a chance, that no insignificant person was ever born.

Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men.

any person haled into court, who is too poor to hire a lawyer, cannot be assured a fair trial unless counsel is provided for him

It is a well-established principle of law that every wrong has a remedy.

After becoming citizens they are entitled, under the Constitution and laws, to be placed on a perfect equality with native-born citizens, and in this character they should ever be kindly recognized.

In short, we ought to do justice in a kindly spirit to all nations and require justice from them in return.

The friend, however, took her in, and the friend's husband was obliged to sleep upon a bench in the park every night for a week, which he did uncomplainingly if not cheerfully.

Liberty and law have marched hand in hand.

And yet, in spite of the opposition encountered, and the obstacles opposed to their acquisition of knowledge and their accumulation of property, the progress made by colored women along these lines has never been surpassed by that of any people in the history of the world.