It is a certain sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it can hold men’s hearts by hopes, when it cannot by satisfaction.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

O citizens, first acquire wealth; you can practice virtue afterward.

I am no courtesan, nor moderator, nor tribune, nor defender of the people: I am myself the people.

There is nothing more tyrannical than a strong popular feeling among a democratic people.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

No free man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispossessed or outlawed or exiled, or in any way destroyed, nor will we go upon him, nor will we send against him except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

The U.S. presidency is a Tudor monarchy plus telephones.

No human life, not even the life of a hermit, is possible without a world which directly or indirectly testifies to the presence of other human beings.

People revere the Constitution yet know so little about it—and that goes for some of my fellow senators.

Written laws are like spiderwebs: they will catch, it is true, the weak and poor but would be torn in pieces by the rich and powerful.