The quote database

If thou bear it unwillingly, thou makest a burden for thyself and greatly increaseth thy load, and yet thou must bear it.

No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.

From that event to the close of the war, I never experienced trepidation upon confronting an enemy, though I always felt more or less anxiety.

There are but few important events in the affairs of men brought about by their own choice.

Do all that you can do in a perfect manner every day, but do it without haste, worry, or fear. Go as fast as you can, but never hurry.

Extreme altruism is no better and no nobler than extreme selfishness; both are mistakes.

Do, every day, all that you can do that day, and do each act in an efficient manner.

Marshall's statement cannot be read to mean in any sense that a President is above the law

Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government, and at the same time do for it too little.

Sensation is unorganized stimulus, perception is organized sensation, conception is organized perception, science is organized knowledge, wisdom is organized life: each is a greater degree of order, and sequence, and unity.

So, if you want to change the world, don’t back down from the sharks.

There are a lot of sharks in the world. If you hope to complete the swim you will have to deal with them.

The most rational cure after all for the inordinate fear of death is to set a just value on life.

Never with my consent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the pliant instrument of Executive will.

When this corrupting passion once takes possession of the human mind, like the love of gold it becomes insatiable.

Limited as are the powers which have been granted, still enough have been granted to constitute a despotism if concentrated in one of the departments.

If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends.

The spirit of liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our institutions may receive.

We should make every effort to prevent humiliating and degrading prohibition against any of our citizens wishing temporarily to sojourn in foreign countries because of race or religion.

If we would promise we must put ourselves in a position to perform our promise.

We shall enter into any war with a full consciousness of the awful consequences that it always entails, whether successful or not, and we, of course, shall make every effort consistent with national honor and the highest national interest to avoid a resort to arms.

The public officials charged with executing the law might do injustice in heated controversy through unconscious pride of opinion and obstinacy of conclusion.

that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials

The general proposition that freedom of expression upon public questions is secured by the First Amendment has long been settled by our decisions.

a punishment must not by its severity be degrading to human dignity