" If, then education be of admitted importance to the people, under all forms of government, and of unquestioned necessity when they govern themselves, it follows, of course, that its cultivation and diffusion is a matter of public concern and a duty  which every government owes to its people...

"Many complain of this tax, not so much on account of its amount as because it is for the benefit of others and not themselves. This is a mistake; it is for their own benefit, inasmuch as it perpetuates the government....

"He who would oppose it, either through inability to comprehend the advantages of general education, or from willingness to bestow them on all his fellow citizens, even to the lowest and the poorest, or from dread of popular vengeance, seems to me to want either the head of the philosopher, the heart of the philanthropist, or the nerve of the hero."

-Representative Thaddeus Stevens, Speech to the Pennsylvania Legislature, 1835

"Unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not...no-government, but...a better government...

"It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I thing right...

"There are thousands who are in opinion opposed to slavery and to the war (with Mexico) who yet in effect do nothing to put an end to them...

"Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison...If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison or give up war on slavery, the state will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure...This is...the definition of a peaceable revolution."

-Henry David Thoreau, lecturer and author, "Resistance to Civil Government," (Civil Disobedience), 1849

"I think that 'twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talk about?

"That man over there says that women need to be helped...Nobody ever helps me...And ain't I a woman?

"Then they talk about this thing in the head...intellect...What's that got to do with women's rights or negro's rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little have-measure full?

"Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did Christ come from?...From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him."

-Sojourner Truth, abolitionist and former slave, speech to a Women's Convention in Ohio, 1851