Has justice ever grown in the soil of absolute power? Has not justice always come from the ... heart and spirit of men who resist power?

You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God. Certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human race.

Only peace between equals can last.

The wisest thing to do with a fool is to encourage him to hire a hall and discourse to his fellow-citizens . Nothing chills nonsense like exposure to the air.

Interest does not tie nations together; it sometimes separates them. But sympathy and understanding does unite them.

The man who has no vision will undertake no great enterprise.

Government ought to be all outside and no inside. . . . Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.