Thaddeus Stevens Quotes

• No government can be free that does not allow all its citizens to participate in the formation and execution of her laws.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Law, Government, Citizens

  Thaddeus Stevens (1998). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868”, p.214, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  83 Copy quote

• Strip the proud nobility of their bloated estates, reduce them to a level with plain republicans, send forth to labor, and teach their children to enter the workshops or handle the plow, and you will thus humble proud traitors.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Children, Humble, Plowing

  Thaddeus Stevens (1998). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868”, p.108, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  85 Copy quote

• I can never acknowledge the right of slavery. I will bow down to no deity however worshipped by professing Christians - however dignified by the name of the Goddess of Liberty, whose footstool is the crushed necks of the groaning millions, and who rejoices in the resoundings of the tyrant's lash, and the cries of his tortured victims.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Christian, Names, Tyrants

  "Shapers of the Great Debate on the Civil War: A Biographical Dictionary". Book by Dan Monroe and Bruce Tap, p. 255, 2005.

  73 Copy quote

• I don’t hold with equality in all things only with equality before the law and nothing more.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Equality, Law, Justice

  85 Copy quote

• I wished that I were the owner of every southern slave, that I might cast off the shackles from their limbs, and witness the rapture which would excite them in the first dance of their freedom.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Southern, Might, Firsts

  Thaddeus Stevens (1997). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868”, p.59, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  64 Copy quote

• I will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus: 'Here lies one who never rose to any eminence, who only courted the low ambition to have it said that he striven to ameliorate the condition of the poor, the lowly, the
  downtrodden of every race and language and color.'

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Lying, Ambition, Race

  Thaddeus Stevens (1997). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868”, p.524, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  59 Copy quote

• The whole fabric of southern society must be changed, and never can it be done if this opportunity is lost. Without this, this government can never be, as it never has been, a true republic.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Opportunity, Government, Southern

  Thaddeus Stevens (1998). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868”, p.23, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  62 Copy quote

• The greatest measure of the nineteenth century was passed by corruption, aided and abetted by the purest man in America.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Men, America, Corruption

  49 Copy quote

• The freedom of a government does not depend on the quality of its laws, but upon the power that has the right to create them.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Law, Government, Quality

  37 Copy quote

• Retain, even in opposition, your capacity for astonishment.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Astonishment, Capacity, Opposition

  32 Copy quote

• I repose in this quiet and secluded spot not from any natural preference for solitude, but finding other cemeteries limited as to race by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life: EQUALITY OF MAN BEFORE HIS CREATOR.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Men, Race, Long

  Epitaph on his grave in Lancaster, Pensylvania,

  35 Copy quote

• I wish the Indians had newspapers of their own. If they had, you would have horrible pictures of the cold-blooded murders of inoffensive Indians.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Wish, Cold, Murder

  Thaddeus Stevens (1997). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868”, p.169, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  34 Copy quote

• I answer, because I live among men and not among angels.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Angel, Men, Answers

  Thaddeus Stevens (1998). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868”, p.156, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  31 Copy quote

• Every humane and patriotic heart must grieve to see a bloody and causeless rebellion, costing thousands of human lives and millions of treasure. But as it was predetermined and inevitable, it was long enough delayed. Now is the appropriate time to solve the greatest problem ever submitted to civilized man.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Heart, Patriotic, Men

  Thaddeus Stevens (1997). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens: January 1814-March 1865”, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  28 Copy quote

• The future condition of the conquered power depends on the will of the conquerer.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Depends, Conditions

  Thaddeus Stevens (1998). “The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 2: April 1865-August 1868”, p.45, University of Pittsburgh Pre

  27 Copy quote

• I care not whether the soldiers are of Milesian, Teutonic, African or Angelo-Saxon descent. I despise the principle that make a difference between them in the hour of battle and of death.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Differences, Soldier, Making A Difference

  26 Copy quote

• There can be no fanatics in the cause of genuine liberty. Fanaticism is excessive zeal. There may be, and have been fanatics in false religion; in the bloody religions of the heathen.

  Thaddeus Stevens

  Liberty, May, Causes

  "The Selected Papers of Thaddeus Stevens, Volume 1: April 1865-August 1868" by Thaddeus Stevens, University of Pittsburgh Pre, 1997.

  28 Copy quote

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