The American doctrinaire is the converse of the American demagogue, and, in this way, is scarcely less injurious to the public. The first deals in poetry, the last in cant. He is as much a visionary on one side, as the extreme theoretical democrat is a visionary on the other. – James Fenimore Cooper

Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help. – G. W. F. Hegel

Expedients are for the hour, but principles are for the ages. – Henry Ward Beecher