All quotes

It is notorious that a single successful effort of moral volition, such as saying 'no' to some habitual temptation, or performing some courageous act, will launch a man on a higher level of energy for days and weeks, will give him a new range of power.

Our fires are damped, our drafts are checked. We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.

Stating the thing broadly, the human individual thus lives usually far within his limits; he possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.

The normal opener of deeper and deeper levels of energy is the will.

The transformation, moreover, is a chronic one: the new level of energy becomes permanent.

Never suffer an exception to occur till the new habit is securely rooted in your life.

Ideal aspirations are not enough, when uncombined with pluck and will.

Convince me that liberty is not the inalienable birthright of every human being, of whatever complexion or clime, and I will give that instrument to the consuming fire.

Convince me that one man may rightfully make another man his slave, and I will no longer subscribe to the Declaration of Independence.

Every slave is a stolen man; every slaveholder is a man-stealer.

Hence, I cannot but regard oppression in every form--and most of all, that which turns a man into a thing--with indignation and abhorrence.

Show me the government which can be maintained only by destroying the rights of a portion of the people; and you will indicate the duty of openly revolting against it.

Slavery cannot bear one ray of light, or the slightest criticism.

What you demand for yourselves, in virtue of your manhood, I demand for the enslaved at the South, on the same ground.

Arbitration is the true method of settlement of international as well as local or individual differences.

War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency.

We want no wars of conquest; we must avoid the temptation of territorial aggression.

Honesty, capacity, and industry are nowhere more indispensable than in public employment.

There are some national questions in the solution of which patriotism should exclude partisanship.

All other work but this is worthless; it is slaves’ work—mere toiling to live, that we may live to toil.

But a man at work, making something which he feels will exist because he is working at it and wills it, is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as well as of his body.

Nature does not give us our livelihood gratis; we must win it by toil of some sort or degree.

Thus worthy work carries with it the hope of pleasure in rest, the hope of the pleasure in our using what it makes, and the hope of pleasure in our daily creative skill.

One's beliefs have long been thought to be sanctuaries which government could not invade.

The quality of advocacy turns on the depth of the conviction; and government has no power to invade that sanctuary of belief and conscience.