In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war.

When the hour comes for dealing with slavery, I trust I will be willing to do my duty though it cost my life.

The surest way to reveal one's character is not through adversity but by giving them power.

What has ever threatened our liberty and prosperity save and except this institution of Slavery?

I hold the value of life is to improve one's condition. Whatever is calculated to advance the condition of the honest, struggling laboring man, so far as my judgment will enable me to judge of a correct thing, I am for that thing.

I understand that it is a maxim of law, that a poor plea may be a good plea to a bad declaration.

I never tire of reading Tom Paine.