Adversity toughens manhood, and the characteristic of the good or the great man is not that he has been exempt from the evils of life, but that he has surmounted them.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience.

Is it not amazing that at a time when the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty-that in such an age and in such a country we find men professing a religion the most humane, mild, gentle and generous, adopting a principle as repugnant to humanity as it is inconsistent with the Bible, and destructive to liberty?

The first thing I have at heart is American liberty; the second thing is American union.

The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.

Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!

When the American spirit was in its youth, the language of America was different: Liberty, sir, was the primary object.