You are ambitious, which, within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm.

I have always thought that all men should be free; but if any should be slaves, it should be first those who desire for themselves, and secondly those who desire it for others. Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally.

If there is anything that links the human to the divine, it is the courage to stand by a principle when everybody else rejects it.

The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and of generosity.

The love of property and consciousness of right and wrong have conflicting places in our organization, which often makes a man's course seem crooked, his conduct a riddle.

I cannot speak so confidently about the fighting qualities of the Eastern men, or what are called Yankees - not knowing myself particularly to whom the appellation belongs - but this I do know - if the Southerners think that man for man they are better than our Illinois men, or western men generally, they will discover themselves in a grievous mistake.

The principles of Jefferson are the definitions and axioms of free society.