It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this. The ancient democracies in which the people themselves deliberated never possessed one good feature of government. Their very character was tyranny; their figure deformity.

The laws of Congress are restricted to a certain sphere, and when they depart from this sphere, they are no longer supreme or binding.

Common interest may always be reckoned upon as the surest bond of sympathy.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Tyranny has perhaps oftener grown out of the assumptions of power, called for, on pressing exigencies, by a defective constitution, than out of the full exercise of the largest constitutional authorities.

I never expect to see a perfect work from an imperfect man.

People sometimes attribute my success to my genius; all the genius I know anything about is hard work.