The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance.

Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life; men of no principle, but of great talent; and men of no talent, but of one principle - that of obedience to their superiors.

The best use of good laws is to teach men to trample bad laws under their feet.

Experience is a safe light to walk by, and he is not a rash man who expects to succeed in future from the same means which have secured it in times past.

There is a very broad theory that society gets the right to hang, as the individual gets the right to defend himself. Suppose she does; there are certain principles which limit this right. Society has got the murderer within four walls; he never can do any more harm. Has society any need to take that man's life to protect itself? If any society has only the right that the individual has, she has no right to inflict the penalty of death, because she can effectually restrain the individual from ever again committing his offence.

My advice to a young man seeking deathless fame would be to espouse an unpopular cause and devote his life to it.

What gunpowder did for war, the printing-press has done for the mind; and the statesman is no longer clad in the steel of special education, but every reading man is his judge.

It is but the littleness of man that seeth no greatness in trifles.

Sin is not taken out of man, as Eve was out of Adam, by putting him to sleep.