Next to love, Sympathy is the divinest passion of the human heart.

In their nomination to office they will not appoint to the exercise of authority as to a pitiful job, but as to a holy function.

I venture to say no war can be long carried on against the will of the people.

No man can mortgage his injustice as a pawn for his fidelity.

Society is indeed a contract. Subordinate contracts for objects of mere occasional interest may be dissolved at pleasure - but the state ought not to be considered as nothing better than a partnership agreement in a trade of pepper and coffee, calico, or tobacco, or some other such low concern, to be taken up for a little temporary interest, and to be dissolved by the fancy of the parties. It is to be looked on with other reverence, because it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature.

He had no failings which were not owing to a noble cause; to an ardent, generous, perhaps an immoderate passion for fame; a passion which is the instinct of all great souls.

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