Fixed ideas of God and human nature are indispensable to the daily practice of men’s lives; but the practice of their lives prevents them from acquiring such ideas.

It is ... far more important to resist apathy than anarchy or despotism for apathy can give rise, almost indifferently, to either one.

Consider any individual at any period of his life, and you will always find him preoccupied with fresh plans to increase his comfort and wealth.

History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and few copies.

There is hardly a pioneer's hut which does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember that I read the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.

When justice is more certain and more mild, it is at the same time more efficacious.

A long war almost always places nations in the wretched alternative of being abandoned to ruin by defeat or to despotism by success.

The States in which the citizens have enjoyed their rights longest are those in which they make the best use of them.

The Americans of the United States stand in precisely the same position with regard to the peoples of South America as their fathers, the English, occupy with regard to the Italians, the Spaniards, the Portuguese, and all those nations of Europe which receive their articles of daily consumption from England, because they are less advanced in civilization and trade.

The jury, which is the most energetic means to make the people rule, is also the most effective means to teach them to rule.