You must hear the birds song without attempting to render it into nouns and verbs.

There are men who, by their sympathetic attractions, carry nations with them, and lead the activity of the human race.

The highest virtue is always against the law.

Show me a man who has acted, and who has not been the victim and slave of his action. What they have done commits and enforces them to do the same again. The first act, which was to be an experiment, becomes a sacrament.

The only compensation which war offers for its manifold mischiefs, is in the great personal qualities to which it gives scope and occasion.

I think we must get rid of slavery or we must get rid of freedom.

From Washington, proverbially "the city of distances," through all its cities, states, and territories, it is a country of beginnings, of projects, of designs, and expectations.