I cannot believe that a republic could subsist if the influence of the lawyers in public business did not increase in proportion to the power of the people.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

Despotism often presents itself as the repairer of all the ills suffered, the support of just rights, defender of the oppressed, and founder of order.

It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth.

There are many men of principle in both parties in America, but there is no party of principle.

A democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.

There is no country in the world in which everything can be provided for by the laws, or in which political institutions can prove a substitute for common sense and public morality.

Liberty cannot be established without morality, nor morality without faith.

In the United States, the majority undertakes to supply a multitude of ready-made opinions for the use of individuals, who are thus relieved from the necessity of forming opinions of their own.

I do not know if the people of the United States would vote for superior men if they ran for office, but there can be no doubt that such men do not run.

Though a story may begin as a lie, perhaps it can be made true. Perhapsd their ultimate power is found in how they inspire us to action.

He who desires solitude is either an animal or a god.

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.

This is what forty looks like. We've been lying so long, who would know?

I do not believe in shooting anything that cannot shoot back.

No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

In any group of people, no matter how hard-assed they might appear, there’s always a geek.

[B]eyond poverty, beyond the point that the material needs are reasonably satisfied, only from within is peace.

Never throw off the best affections of nature in the moment when they become most precious to their object; nor fear to extend you hand to save another, lest you should sink yourself.

Silence is only commendable In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible.