To say that everything in the bible is to be believed , simply because it is found in that volume, is equally absurd and pernicious... To discard a portion of scripture is not necessarily to reject the truth, but may be the highest evidence that one can give of his love of truth.

It is for us to discharge the high duties that devolve on us, and carry our race onward. To be no better, no wiser, no greater than the past is to be little and foolish and bad; it is to misapply noble means, to sacrifice glorious opportunities for the performance of sublime deeds, to become cumberers of the ground.

The compact which exists between the North and the South is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell.

You can not possibly have a broader basis for government than that which includes all the people, with all their rights in their hands, and with an equal power to maintain their rights.

Gradualism in theory is perpetuity in practice.

Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.

In firing his gun, John Brown has merely told what time of day it is. It is high noon.