Men living in democratic times have many passions, but most of their passions either end in the love of riches, or proceed from it.

It profits me but little, after all, that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquility of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life.

There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember reading the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.

Equality is a slogan based on envy. It signifies in the heart of every republican: "Nobody is going to occupy a place higher than I."

The best laws cannot make a constitution work in spite of morals; morals can turn the worst laws to advantage.

The only authors whom I acknowledge as American are the journalists. They, indeed, are not great writers, but they speak the language of their countrymen, and make themselves heard by them.

All those who seek to destroy the liberties of a democratic nation ought to know that war is the surest and shortest means to accomplish it.