"The President proclaims war, and those Senators..." - Quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson

“All life is an experiment.”

“A man must thank his defects, and stand in some terror of his talents. A transcendent talent draws so largely on his forces as tolame him; a defect pays him revenues on the other side.”

“Surely nobody would be a charlatan, who could afford to be sincere.”

“Remember, Sir, that [England] began the slave trade!”

“I'm not really conservative. I'm conservative on certain things. I believe in less government. I believe in fiscal responsibility and all those things that maybe Republicans used to believe in but don't any more.”

“If fifty thousand men were to die for the good of the State, I certainly would weep for them, but political necessity comes before everything else.”

“This American government - what is it but a tradition, though a recent one, endeavoring to transmit itself unimpaired to posterity, but each instant losing some of its integrity? It has not the vitality and force of a single living man; for a single man can bend it to his will.”

“Some things the legislator must find ready to his hand in a state, others he must provide. And therefore we can only say: May our state be constituted in such a manner as to be blessed with the goods of which fortune disposes (for we acknowledge her power): whereas virtue and goodness in the state are not a matter of chance but the result of knowledge and purpose. A city can be virtuous only when the citizens who have a share in the government are virtuous, and in our state all the citizens share in the government.”

“Let's not forget that Congress bears a lot of responsibility for many of the problems we have now”