Should any American soldier be so base and infamous as to injure any [prisoner] ... I do most earnestly enjoin you to bring him to such severe and exemplary punishment as the enormity of the crime may require. Should it extend to death itself, it will not be disproportional to its guilt at such a time and in such a cause... for by such conduct they bring shame, disgrace and ruin to themselves and their country.

Capital punishment is as fundamentally wrong as a cure for crime as charity is wrong as a cure for poverty.

The gentleman calls attention to the good points in others; he does not call attention to their defects. The small man does just the reverse of this.

The nobler sort of man emphasizes the good qualities in others, and does not accentuate the bad. The inferior does.

Man is born for uprightness. If a man lose his uprightness and yet live, his escape from death is mere good fortune.

To be fond of learning is to be near to knowledge. To practice with vigor is to be near to magnanimity. To possess the feeling of shame is to be near to energy.