There is danger in reckless change, but greater danger in blind conservatism.

How can a man be said to have a country when he has not right of a square inch of it.

Compare society to a boat. Her progress through the water will not depend upon the exertion of her crew, but upon the exertion devoted to propelling her. This will be lessened by any expenditure of force in fighting among themselves, or in pulling in different directions.

The man who gives me employment, which I must have or suffer, that man is my master, let me call him what I will.

The state, it cannot too often be repeated, does nothing, and can give nothing, which it does not take from somebody.

It is not from top to bottom that societies die; it is from bottom to top.

No person, I think, ever saw a herd of buffalo, of which a few were fat and the great majority lean. No person ever saw a flock of birds, of which two or three were swimming in grease, and the others all skin and bone.