Quotes

“I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment.” James Madison

“If we are to take for the criterion of truth the majority of suffrages, they ought to be gotten from those philosophic and patriotic citizens who cultivate their reason.” James Madison

“Learned Institutions ought to be favorite objects with every free people. They throw that light over the public mind which is the best security against crafty and dangerous encroachments on the public liberty.” James Madison

“The internal effects of a mutable policy poisons the blessings of liberty itself.” James Madison

“The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.” James Madison

“War contains so much folly, as well as wickedness, that much is to be hoped from the progress of reason.” James Madison

“What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?” James Madison

“Climb the mountains and get their good tidings.” John Muir

“Keep close to Nature's heart... and break clear away, once in awhile, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.” John Muir

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.” John Muir

“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.” John Muir

“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.” John Muir

“The mountains are calling and I must go.” John Muir

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” John Muir

“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!” John Muir

“The power of imagination makes us infinite.” John Muir

“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.” John Muir

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” John Muir

“To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world.” John Muir

“Take a course in good water and air; and in the eternal youth of Nature you may renew your own. Go quietly, alone; no harm will befall you.” John Muir

“The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual.” John Muir

“Trees go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!” John Muir

“There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation's braggart lords.” John Muir

“I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do.” John Muir

“One may as well dam for water tanks the people's cathedrals and churches, for no holier temple has ever been consecrated by the heart of man.” John Muir

“Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative.” John Stuart Mill

“War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.” John Stuart Mill

“A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.” John Stuart Mill

“One person with a belief is equal to ninety-nine who have only interests.” John Stuart Mill

“The only freedom which deserves the name is that of pursuing our own good, in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to obtain it.” John Stuart Mill