The Supreme Court has made its decision, now let them enforce it.

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.

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.

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.

If you don't respect money, it won't respect you.

Time runs independently of us, and we cannot comprehend the flow of time. Time is a category in itself.

My garden, with its silence and pulses of fragrance that come and go on the airy undulations, affects me like sweet music. Care stops at the gates, and gazes at me wistfully through the bars.

All good balls to hit are strikes, though not all strikes are good balls to hit.

To have begun is half the job; be bold and be sensible.

I shall act as I think my duty requires.

You must know your faith with the same precision with which a specialist in information technology knows the operating system of a computer.

The problem is that in our country, they make it almost impossible for politicians to win anything. In England it's easier to win a libel suit.

I just scribbled away and eventually a C-major chord was there. I didn't ever decide I was going to be a composer. It was like being tall. It's what I was. It's what I did.

Milton was the first person who really experimented with putting politics into sonnets.