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

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

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.

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.

My people and I have come to an agreement that satisfies us both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

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.

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.

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

Sic semper tyrannis! The South is avenged.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

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.

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

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.