An entire life of solitude contradicts the purpose of our being, since death itself is scarcely an idea of more terror.

A people who are still, as it were, but in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood.

It is the nature of tyranny and rapacity never to learn moderation from the ill-success of first oppressions; on the contrary, all oppressors, all men thinking highly of the methods dictated by their nature, attribute the frustration of their desires to the want of sufficient rigor.

It is the function of a judge not to make but to declare the law, according to the golden mete-wand of the law and not by the crooked cord of discretion.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Ambition can creep as well as soar.

The great Error of our Nature is, not to know where to stop, not to be satisfied with any reasonable Acquirement; not to compound with our Condition; but to lose all we have gained by an insatiable Pursuit after more.