Never ruin an apology with an excuse.

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself—and be lenient to everybody else.

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.

The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it.

Blame it or praise it, there is no denying the wild horse in us.

You find out the necessity of Liberty as you find out the necessity of air—by not having enough of it.

The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.

Freedom ultimately means the right of the other people to do things you don’t approve of.

They fear love because it creates a world they can't control.

Since men are neither omniscient nor infallible, they must be free to agree or disagree, to cooperate or to pursue their own independent course, each according to his own rational judgment. Freedom is the fundamental requirement of man's mind.

You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

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.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most impressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be saturated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.