Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made.

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

To be turned from one’s course by men’s opinions, by blame, and by misrepresentation shows a man unfit to hold office.

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

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

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

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.

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

You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.

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

If you must take care that your opinions do not differ in the least from those of the person with whom you are talking, you might just as well be alone.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

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