"If I should conceive myself to be of too much importance to the cause, and to be unwilling to make such sacrifices as the crisis may require, it would be a proof of my unworthiness."

"I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do to see a plan adopted for the abolition of slavery."

"There is a Destiny which has the control of our actions, not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of Human Nature."

"I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man."

"The foundations of our empire were not laid in the gloomy age of ignorance and superstition; but at an epocha when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any fo…"