“True law, the code of justice, the essence of our sensations of right and wrong, is the conscience of society. It has taken thousands of years to develop, and it is the greatest, the most distinguishing quality which has developed with mankind ... If we can touch God at all, where do we touch him save in the conscience? And what is the conscience of any man save his little fragment of the conscience of all men in all time?”

“We desire justice, and justice has never been obtained in haste and strong feeling.”

“Then our crime's worse than a murderer's. His act puts him outside the law, but keeps the law intact. Ours would weaken the law.”

“He proved that it was equally true if the disregard was by a ruler or by a people. "It spreads like a disease," he said. "And it's infinitely more deadly when the law is disregarded by men pretending to act for justice than when it's simply inefficient, or even when its elected administrator's are crooked.”

“Places, like people, have their beginnings and have also their endings.”

“We must imagine our lives well. We must engage our conscience. Conscience is the voice of God in the nature and heart of man.”

“Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resigns his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward.”