Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

Nothing external to you has any power over you.

At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door and say,—'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act.

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of everyone of its members. Society is a joint-stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

Life is to be lived, not controlled.

A man must consider what rich realms he abdicates when he becomes a conformist

Be as beneficent as the sun or the sea, but if your rights as a rational being are trenched on, die on the first inch of your territory.

Wherever a man comes, there comes a revolution. The old is for slaves.

If you put a chain around the neck of a slave, the other end fastens itself around your own.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall.

An obedient man is free when in prison," Quan said. "A disobedient man is imprisoned when free.

Legalism always breeds compliance over purpose.