Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart.

Government is a trust, and the officers of the government are trustees. And both the trust and the trustees are created for the benefit of the people.

Of all the properties which belong to honorable men, not one is so highly prized as that of character.

Let him who elevates himself above humanity . . . say, if he pleases, "I will never compromise"; but let no one who is not above the frailties of our common nature disdain compromise.

An oppressed people are authorized whenever they can to rise and break their fetters.

The Constitution of the United States was made not merely for the generation that then existed, but for posterity- unlimited, undefined, endless, perpetual posterity.

The time will come when winter will ask what you were doing all summer.

It is better to fall short of a high mark than to reach a low one.

Peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must.

I cannot believe that the killing of 2,000 Englishmen at New Orleans qualifies a person for the various difficult and complicated duties of the Presidency.

All legislation is founded upon the principle of mutual concession.

Don't allow your mind to create a bigger problem than your problem.

There is no such thing as a pretty good omelette.

We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law!

The flaws you see in others are actually a reflection of yourself.

We are not made for law, we are made for love.

Knowing the plumbing of the universe, intricate and awe-inspiring though that plumbing might be, is a far cry from discovering its purpose.

I won't do something just for the sake of working.

Bein' rich is having leftovers. Good leftovers make yo' tongue fly outta yo' mouth and smack yo' brains out.

The irony is, going to work every day became the subject of probably my best poetry.

Elvis and I continued to be friends, and I saw him once or twice a year. But he was a troubled person.