William Seward: “Fellow-citizens: I will detain you no longer by this faint and feeble tribute to the illustrious dead.”

And a people which should deliberately, by the organization of its authorized power, deprive itself of the faculty of multiplying its own blessings, would be as wise as a creator who should undertake to constitute a human being without a…

I will not stand by and see my fellow-man drowning, without stretching out a hand to help him, till he has, by his own efforts and presence of mind, reached the shore in safety, and then encumber him with aid.

The first object of human association is the improvement of the condition of the associated.

Without strength, and activity and vigor of body, the brightest mental excellencies will be eclipsed and obscured.