The right of petition, I have said, was not conferred on the People by the Constitution, but was a pre-existing right, reserved by the People out of the grants of power made to Congress.

We are laying the foundations of a government, which we hope may outlast the Pyramids.

Men of New England, I hold you to the doctrines of liberty which ye inherit from your Puritan forefathers.

Upon the Constitution, upon the pre-existing legal rights of the People, as understood in this country and in England, I have argued that this House is bound to revive the Petition under debate.

Entertaining these opinions of the course to be pursued, I beg of gentlemen to look at the question, as I have done, in a calm review of facts and of principles.

It is impossible, in my mind, to distinguish between the refusal to receive a petition, or its summary rejection by some general order, and the denial of the right of petition.

I maintain that the House is bound by the Constitution to receive the petitions; after which, it will take such method of deciding upon them as reason and principle shall dictate.

You well know, sir, that when the Constitution was submitted to the People of the respective States for their adoption or rejection, it awakened the warmest debates of the several State conventions.

I declare and protest in advance, that I do not intend, at this time at least; to be drawn or driven into the question of slavery, in either of its subdivisions or forms.

And if this House is to be scared, by whatever influences, from its duty, to receive and hear the petitions of the People, then I shall send my voice beyond the walls of this Capitol for redress.

Men of Virginia, countrymen of Washington, of Patrick Henry, of Jefferson, and of Madison, will ye be true to your constitutional faith?

There's life for you. Spend the best years of your life studying penmanship and rhetoric and syntax and Beowulf and George Eliot, and then somebody steals your pencil.

Watch your mouth: The language we use creates the reality we experience.

Believe nothing you hear, and only one half that you see.

Silence is the loudest sound!

Nobody knows anything when they are in their midtwenties.

Humor's an excellent way to make a point more palatable and/or relatable.

A bright smile has the strongest electrifying power to lift up the sagging morale and light up a depressed face effortlessly and immediately.

If the whole world was blind, how many people would you impress?

At 26, I felt myself a victim rather than a victor in the realm of pictures.

I am sincere, ma petite, even when I lie.