I believe the declaration that ‘all men are created equal’ is the great fundamental principle upon which our free institutions rest.

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it.

The worst thing you can do for those you love is the things they could and should do themselves.

Half finished work generally proves to be labor lost.

If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution.

I do not think I could myself, be brought to support a man for office, whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there are no bad laws, nor that grievances may not arise, for the redress of which, no legal provisions have been made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say, that, although bad laws, if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still while they continue in force, for the sake of example, they should be religiously observed.