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

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

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.

The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

What experience and history teach is this—that nations and governments have never learned anything from history or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

He may be a patriot for Austria, but the question is whether he is a patriot for me.

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him your celebration is a sham.

The Revolution is made by man, but man must forge his revolutionary spirit from day to day.

The best of all rulers is but a shadowy presence to his subjects.

Politics is the art of the possible.