I am able to say that I was very much liked at the school. I even had quite some ascendancy over my comrades, and as soon as I appeared in the school yard, I was surrounded by young friends, most of them bigger than I, but who were quite willing to give the appearance of disciples; they would have defended me furiously if necessary.
— Marquis de Lafayette
I shall ask for the abolition for the punishment of death until I have the infallibility of human judgment demonstrated to me.
When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.
I read, I study, I examine, I listen, I think, and out of all that I try to form an idea into which I put as much common sense as I can.
I gave my heart to the Americans and thought of nothing else but raising my banner and adding my colors to theirs.
True republicanism is the sovereignty of the people. There are natural and imprescriptible rights which an entire nation has no right to violate.
Humanity has won its battle. Liberty now has a country.
An irresistible passion that would induce me to believe in innate ideas and the truth of prophecy has decided my career. I have always loved liberty with the enthusiasm which actuates the religious man with the passion of a lover and with the conviction of a geometrician.
If the liberties of the American people are ever destroyed, they will fall by the hands of the clergy.
It is the pride of my heart to have been one of the earliest adopted sons of America.
