It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.

Limitation is essential to authority. A government is legitimate only if it is effectively limited.

It is they [men of science] who hold the secret of the mysterious property of the mind by which error ministers to truth, and truth slowly but irrevocably prevails. Theirs is the logic of discovery, the demonstration of the advance of knowledge and the development of ideas, which as the earthly wants and passions of men remain almost unchanged, are the charter of progress, and the vital spark in history.

I saw in States' rights the only availing check upon the absolutism of the sovereign will, and secession filled me with hope, not as the destruction but as the redemption of Democracy.... Therefore I deemed that you were fighting the battles of our liberty, our progress, and our civilization, and I mourn for the stake which was lost at Richmond more deeply than I rejoice over that which was saved at Waterloo.

It is dangerous, at any time, to multiply sources of weakness.

Character is tested by true sentiments more than by conduct. A man is seldom better than his word.

It is easier to find people fit to govern themselves than people fit to govern others.