The quote database

Reverie is a loose dreaming into which a man falls; meditation is a strong, purposeful thinking into which a man rises.

After becoming citizens they are entitled, under the Constitution and laws, to be placed on a perfect equality with native-born citizens, and in this character they should ever be kindly recognized.

In short, we ought to do justice in a kindly spirit to all nations and require justice from them in return.

Next in importance to the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union is the duty of preserving the Government free from the taint or even the suspicion of corruption.

Our diplomacy should be direct and frank, neither seeking to obtain more nor accepting less than is our due.

One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.

By the theory of our Government majorities rule, but this right is not an arbitrary or unlimited one.

The burdens of government should as far as practicable be distributed justly and equally among all classes of our population.

Liberty is to faction what air is to fire, an aliment without which it instantly expires.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition. The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place.

National honor is national property of the highest value.

It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty.

If errors have been committed they ought to be corrected; if the policy is sound it ought to be supported.

the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers.

A President may sense and proclaim that new spirit, but only a people can provide it.

We will lead not merely by the example of our power but by the power of our example.

The right to dissent peaceably, within the guardrails of our Republic, is perhaps our nation's greatest strength.

I will give my all in your service thinking not of power, but of possibilities.

If national pride is ever justifiable or excusable it is when it springs, not from power or riches, grandeur or glory, but from conviction of national innocence, information, and benevolence.

It is their power and majesty that is reflected, and only for their good, in every legitimate government, under whatever form it may appear.

Can authority be more amiable and respectable when it descends from accidents or institutions established in remote antiquity than when it springs fresh from the hearts and judgments of an honest and enlightened people?

In the midst of these pleasing ideas we should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.

ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country

No body can give more power than he has himself; and he that cannot take away his own life, cannot give another power over it.