"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act ane…"

"I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can not remember when I did not so think, and feel."

"Whenever I hear any one arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally."

"Permit me to say that, in my humble judgment, I never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence."

"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot."