Never buy what you do not want, because it is cheap; it will be dear to you.

Where the principle of difference [between political parties] is as substantial and as strongly pronounced as between the republicans and the monocrats of our country, I hold it as honorable to take a firm and decided part and as immoral to pursue a middle line, as between the parties of honest men and rogues, into which every country is divided.

the qualifications for self-government in society are not innate. they are the result of habit and long training.

Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

A democratic society depends upon an informed and educated citizenry.

I am increasingly persuaded that the earth belongs exclusively to the living and that one generation has no more right to bind another to it's laws and judgments than one independent nation has the right to command another.

Man ... feels that he is a participator in the government of affairs not merely at an election, one day in the year, but every day.