The idea of governing at all times by the simple force of law (which we have been told is the only admissible principle of republican government) has no place but in the reveries of those political doctors whose sagacity disdains the admonitions of experimental instruction.

Our countrymen have all the folly of the ass and all the passiveness of the sheep.

A sacred respect for the constitutional law is the vital principle, the sustaining energy of a free government.

The superiority...enjoyed by nations that have...perfected a branch of industry, constitutes a...formidable obstacle.

To judge from the history of mankind, we shall be compelled to conclude, that the fiery and destructive passions of war, reign in the human breast, with much more powerful sway, than the mild and beneficent sentiments of peace.

A share in the sovereignty of the state, which is exercised by the citizens at large, in voting at elections is one of the most important rights of the subject, and in a republic ought to stand foremost in the estimation of the law...That portion of the sovereignty, to which each individual is entitled, can never be too highly prized. It is that for which we have fought and bled.

A well adjusted person is one who makes the same mistake twice without getting nervous.