Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.

After eight years as President I have only two regrets: that I have not shot Henry Clay or hanged John C. Calhoun.

John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation I will secede your head from the rest of your body.

I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me.

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses.

Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.

When you get in debt you become a slave.

But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.

All the rights secured to the citizens under the Constitution are worth nothing, and a mere bubble, except guaranteed to them by an independent and virtuous Judiciary.

Freemasonry is an institution calculated to benefit mankind.

Pride is never so loud as when in chains.

[W]e need to talk over not only those things which are of vital importance to us as women, but also the things that are of especial interest to us as colored women.

Any systematic body of knowledge is science. The more systematic the body of knowledge is the more scientific it is.

When two good men contend about principles, both are always right.

The tradition of the camp fire faces that of the pyramid.

You can just never desist. You have to always push back, whatever the pressures put on you.

The Refrigerator" Perry: "I've been big ever since I was little.

That is ever the difference between the wise and the unwise: the latter wonders at what is unusual; the wise man wonders at the usual.

No person, no idea, and no religion deserves to be illegal to insult, not even the Church of Emacs.

My next film is always shaped by the last one... by the things I feel I didn't get right, or the things I like and want to try to develop further, but it always comes out of the last picture.