And if this House is to be scared, by whatever influences, from its duty, to receive and hear the petitions of the People, then I shall send my voice beyond the walls of this Capitol for redress.

We are laying the foundations of a government, which we hope may outlast the Pyramids.

Men of New England, I hold you to the doctrines of liberty which ye inherit from your Puritan forefathers.

Upon the Constitution, upon the pre-existing legal rights of the People, as understood in this country and in England, I have argued that this House is bound to revive the Petition under debate.

The right of petition, I have said, was not conferred on the People by the Constitution, but was a pre-existing right, reserved by the People out of the grants of power made to Congress.

Entertaining these opinions of the course to be pursued, I beg of gentlemen to look at the question, as I have done, in a calm review of facts and of principles.

It is impossible, in my mind, to distinguish between the refusal to receive a petition, or its summary rejection by some general order, and the denial of the right of petition.

I maintain that the House is bound by the Constitution to receive the petitions; after which, it will take such method of deciding upon them as reason and principle shall dictate.

You well know, sir, that when the Constitution was submitted to the People of the respective States for their adoption or rejection, it awakened the warmest debates of the several State conventions.

I declare and protest in advance, that I do not intend, at this time at least; to be drawn or driven into the question of slavery, in either of its subdivisions or forms.

Men of Virginia, countrymen of Washington, of Patrick Henry, of Jefferson, and of Madison, will ye be true to your constitutional faith?

History was what had happened

The rewards of faith are beyond doubt.

I have been a teacher myself all my life. I have an intense passion to share with people. Our only salvation is in knowledge, in learning.

Things haven't always been this bad. Therefore, they won't always be this bad.

The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.

I spent all my youth with horses.

Contentment is a pearl of great price

There's an individual feminism, if you will, that you make your own choices.

Maybe I was a little jealous or envious of the abstract painters - but the truth was I thought what they were doing was boring.

If even a small portion of the praise that is bestowed on Michael Jackson now in death was given to him last year, in life, he might well still be with us.