He [Stephen Douglas] is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them; that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for making the institution of slavery perpetual and national.

You may have a wen or a cancer upon your person and not be able to cut it out lest you bleed to death; but surely it is no way tocure it, to engraft it and spread it over your whole body.

I do not deny the possibility that the people may err in an election; but if they do, the true [cure] is in the next election, and not in the treachery of the person elected.

A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability.

Law is nothing else but the best reason of wise men applied for ages to the transactions and business of mankind.

The power of hope upon human exertion, and happiness, is wonderful.

The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read.