From “Legality of Arrest.”

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Do you ask me our duty as scholars?  Gentlemen, thought, which the scholar represents, is life and liberty.  There is no intellectual or moral life without liberty.  Therefore, as a man must breathe and see before he can study, the scholar must have liberty first of all; and as the American scholar is a man and has a voice in his own government, so his interest in political affairs must precede all others.  He must build his house before he can live in it.  He must be a perpetual inspiration of freedom in politics.  He must recognize that the intelligent exercise of political rights, which is a privilege in a monarchy, is a duty in a republic If it clash with his case, his retirement, his taste, his study, let it clash, but let him do his duty.  The course of events is incessant, and when the good deed is slighted, the bad deed is done.  George William Curtis.

From “The Duty of the American Scholar.”

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Let us, then, go straight forward to our duty, taking heed of nothing but the right.  In this wise shall we build a work in accord with the will of Him who is daily fashioning the world to a higher destiny; a work resting at no point upon wrong or injustice, but everywhere reposing upon truth and justice; a work which all mankind will be interested in preserving in every age, since it will insure the increasing glory and well-being of mankind through all ages.  Ignatius Donnelly.

From “Reconstruction.”

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We are not only to do some things, but we are to do all things, and we are to continue so to do, so that the least deviation from the moral law, according to the covenant of works, whether in thought, word, or deed, deserves eternal death at the hand of God.  And if one evil thought, if one evil word, if one evil action deserves eternal damnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve whose lives have been one continued rebellion against God!  Before ever, therefore, you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be brought to see, brought to believe, what a dreadful thing it is to depart from the living God.  George Whitefield.

From Sermon, “On the Method of Grace.”

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I say we must necessarily undo these violent, oppressive acts.  They must he repealed.  You will repeal them.  I pledge myself for it that you will in the end repeal them.  I stake my reputation on it.  I will consent to be taken for an idiot if they are not finally repealed.  Avoid, then, this humiliating, disgraceful necessity.  With a dignity becoming your exalted situation make the first advances to concord, to peace, and happiness; for that is your true dignity, to act with prudence and justice.  That you should first concede is obvious, from sound and rational policy.  Concession comes with better grace and more salutary effect from superior power.  It reconciles superiority of power with the feelings of men, and establishes solid confidence on the foundations of affection and gratitude.  Lord Chatham.