"If you lay duties upon people and..." - Quote by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

“All that is transitory is but a metaphor.”

“Man cannot persist long in a conscious state, he must throw himself back into the unconscious, for his root lives there.”

“Judge a man's character by what he finds ridiculous.”

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

“What justice would there be to take this life? Justice, gentlemen? Why, I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this.”

“Forgiveness does not mean excusing.”

“Our adversaries [ the Confederate States of America ] have adopted some declarations of independence in which, unlike the good old one penned by Jefferson, they omit the words "all men are created equal." Why? They have adopted a temporary national constitution, in the preamble of which, unlike our good old one, signed by Washington, they omit "We, the People," and substitute "We, the deputies of the sovereign and independent States." Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view, the rights of men, and the authority of the people?”

“Government has no right to make itself a party in any debates respecting the principles or mode of forming or of changing, constitutions. It is not for the benefit of those who exercise the powers of government, that constitutions, and the governments issuing from them, are established.”

“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”