All quotes

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

The average mind is slow in grasping a truth, but when the most thoroughly organized, centralized institution, maintained at an excessive national expense, has proven a complete social failure, the dullest must begin to question its right to exist.

The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history.

The plea for this outrage was then, as it is always, the tyrant's plea of necessity.

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

To make a contented slave, it is necessary to make a thoughtless one

There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people.

The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness.

My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will.

The people must know before they can act, and there is no educator to compare with the press

the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.

No body can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power over it.

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but to have only the law of nature for his rule.

It is emphatically the province and duty of the judicial department to say what the law is.

A good despotism is an altogether false ideal, which practically (except as a means to some temporary purpose) becomes the most senseless and dangerous of chimeras.

One person with a belief is a social power equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.

Denial of the right to experiment may be fraught with serious consequences to the nation.

It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.

For equal work equally well performed by a man and by a woman, it is ordained that the woman on the ground of her sex alone shall receive a less recompense.

Our Government has no power except that granted it by the people.

A constitution is a thing antecedent to a government, and a government is only the creature of a constitution.

No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.

Desire is a manifestation of power.

Never with my consent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the pliant instrument of Executive will.