Freedom sees in religion the companion of its struggles and its triumphs, the cradle of its infancy, the divine source of its rights. It considers religion as the safeguard of mores; and mores as the guarantee of laws and the pledge of its duration.

It is from the midst of this putrid sewer that the greatest river of human industry springs up and carries fertility to the whole world. From this foul drain pure gold flows forth.

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.

Nature secretly avenges herself for the constraint imposed upon her by the laws of man.

Men will not receive the truth from their enemies, and it is seldom offered to them by their friends.

You may be sure that if you succeed in bringing your audience into the presence of something that affects them, they will not care by what road you brought them there; and they will never reproach you for having excited their emotions in spite of dramatic rules.

The principle of equality does not destroy the imagination, but lowers its flight to the level of the earth.