William H. Seward

“It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces.”

“I know, and all the world knows, that revolutions never go backward.”

“A party is in one sense a conspiracy against the rest of the nation.”

“There is a higher law than the Constitution.”

“The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.”

“The people will not always be right, but they will be right in the end.”

“Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter.”

“The security of the nation is not at the ramparts alone. Security also lies in the value of our free institutions.”

“Every man is born a legislator; for every man has within himself the germ of the most important part of legislation—a sense of equity.”

“It is an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces.”

“The welcome of strangers and the relief of the poor are the highest duties of the Christian faith.”

“A party is in one sense a joint stock company in which those who contribute the most, direct the action and management of the concern.”

“Every man is born a legislator, a governor.”

“The circumstances of the world are so variable that an irrevocable purpose or opinion is almost synonymous with a foolish one.”

“The penalty of success is to be bored by the attentions of people who formerly snubbed you.”

“Slavery can be limited to its present bounds; it can be ameliorated. It can be and must be abolished, and you and I can and must do it.”

“I speak for the universal franchise, and for the admission of women to that franchise.”

“The American people, sir, have no king. They have a president.”

“Treason is a crime against the State. The State is the government. The government is the President.”

“There is a higher law than the Constitution.”