In war, in some sense, lies the very genius of law. It is law creative and active; it is the first principle of the law. What is human warfare but just this, - an effort to make the laws of God and nature take sides with one party. Men make an arbitrary code, and, because it is not right, they try to make it prevail by might. The moral law does not want any champion. Its asserters do not go to war. It was never infringed with impunity. It is inconsistent to decry war and maintain law, for if there were no need of war there would be no need of law.

Cast your whole vote, not a strip of paper merely, but your whole influence. A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight.... If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

The sacredness, if there is any, is all in yourself and not in the place.

Man wanted a home, a place for warmth, or comfort, first of physical warmth, then the warmth of the affections.

The news we hear, for the most part, is not news to our genius. It is the stalest repetition.

I learned to regard man as an inhabitant, or a part and parcel of nature, rather than a member of society.

The man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages.