What is understood by republican government in the United States is the slow and quiet action of society upon itself.

Life is to be entered upon with courage.

I considered mores to be one of the great general causes responsible for the maintenance of a democratic republic . . . the term "mores" . . . meaning . . . habits of the heart.

At the head of any new undertaking where in France you would find the government, or in England some great lord, in the United States you are sure to find an association.

Nothing is more annoying in the ordinary intercourse of life than this irritable patriotism of the Americans. A foreigner will gladly agree to praise much in their country, but he would like to be allowed to criticize something, and that he is absolutely refused.

How could a society escape destruction if, when political ties are relaxed, moral ties are not tightened, and what can be done with a people master of itself if it not subject to God?

I know of no country in which there is so little independence of mind and real freedom of discussion as in America.