The quote database

the need of society drives the human porcupines together--only to be mutually repelled by the many prickly and disagreeable qualities of their nature

Great minds are like eagles, and build their nest in some lofty solitude.

In old age it is indeed a consolation to think that the work of life is over and done with.

Peace of mind is impossible without a considerable amount of solitude.

There is nothing, absolutely nothing, that a man cannot forget,--but not himself, his own character.

It is the monotony of his own nature that makes a man find solitude intolerable.

A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom; for it is only when he is alone that he is really free.

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.

our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint

My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.

But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision I have finally been included in “We, the people.”

I never arrived at the perfection I had been so ambitious of obtaining, but fell far short of it, yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it

While my care was employ'd in guarding against one fault, I was often surprised by another; habit took the advantage of inattention; inclination was sometimes too strong for reason.

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books.

They will presently themselves be compelled to appeal to the law for protection, and those who would use the law as a defense must not deny that use of it to others.

The oath taken in the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant.

We should hold our differing opinions in mutual respect, and, having submitted them to the arbitrament of the ballot, should accept an adverse judgment with the same respect that we would have demanded of our opponents if the decision had been in our favor.

The man who has come to regard the ballot box as a juggler's hat has renounced his allegiance.

No political party can long pursue advantage at the expense of public honor or by rude and indecent methods without protest and fatal disaffection in its own body.

Powerful people maneuver for position and worry endlessly about who is in and who is out, who is up and who is down, forgetting those people whose toil and sweat sends us here and pays our way.

Profound and powerful forces are shaking and remaking our world, and the urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy.

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.

The heart has its reasons, which reason knows not, as we feel in a thousand instances.

Not from space must I seek my dignity, but from the ruling of my thought.