Second only to freedom, learning is the most precious option on earth.

The right to free speech is more important than the content of the speech.

I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.

What I wanted was to be allowed to do the thing in the world that I did best, which I believed then and believe now, is the greatest privilege there is. When I did that, success found me.

When even one American, who has done nothing wrong, is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or the right of the people to peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. -First Amendment

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.

Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.

Why has government been instituted? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason & justice without constraint.

For you can only be free when even the desire of seeking freedom becomes a harness to you.

Liberty only survives when it is defended.

Do not be embarrassed by your mistakes. Nothing can teach us better than our understanding of them. This is one of the best ways of self-education.

Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked.

The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts but the training of the mind to think.

He was so learned that he could name a horse in nine languages; so ignorant that he bought a cow to ride on.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

All things are filled full of signs, and it is a wise man who can learn about one thing from another.

There are few things more pathetic than those who have lost their curiosity and sense of adventure, and who no longer care to learn.

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

The spirit of self-help is the root of all genuine growth in the individual; and, exhibited in the lives of many, it continues the true source of national vigor and strength. Help from without is often enfeebling in its effects, but help from within invariably invigorates.

Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature; it is our future that lays down the law of our today.

In school, you are given the lesson first. One the street, you're given the mistake first and then it's up to you to find the lesson, if you ever find it.

A learned blockhead is a greater blockhead than an ignorant one.

Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets.