I started with this idea in my head, “There’s two things I’ve got a right to…death or liberty.

What I do is prepare myself until I know I can do what I have to do.

A winner never taught me how to quit.

If something is wrong, fix it now. But train yourself not to worry, worry fixes nothing!

Towering in the confidence of twenty-one.

Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.

The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.

It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights would be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. . . . I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it.

The greatest tyrannies are always perpetuated in the name of the noblest causes.

The stability of the internal medium is a primary condition for the freedom and independence of certain living bodies in relation to the environment surrounding them.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly two be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.

If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.

I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.

All tyrannies rule through fraud and force, but once the fraud is exposed they must rely exclusively on force.

The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.

Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.

The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall.

Tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.

Statism needs war; a free country does not. Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by producing.

Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it.

The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.

Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you.

There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs — partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

Liberty without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Liberty is always in vain.

Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the state becomes lawless or corrupt.

Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defence.

Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!