"Texas, to be respected must be polite. Santa Anna living, can be of incalculable benefit to Texas; Santa Anna dead, would just be another dead Mexican."

"In the name of the constitution of Texas, which has been trampled upon, I refuse to take this oath. I love Texas too well to bring civil strife and bloodshed upon her."

"All new states are invested, more or less, by a class of noisy, second-rate men who are always in favor of rash and extreme measures, but Texas was absolutely overrun by such men."

"A leader is someone who helps improve the lives of other people or improve the system they live under."

"Texas will again lift it's head and stand among the nations. It ought to do so, for no country upon the globe can compare with it in natural advantages."

"Whether his policy was right or wrong, he built up the glory of the nation."

"The benefits of education and of useful knowledge, generally diffused through a community, are essential to the preservation of a free government."

"I am aware that in presenting myself as the advocate of the Indians and their rights, I shall stand very much alone."

"Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may."

"I would give no thought of what the world might say of me, if I could only transmit to posterity the reputation of an honest man."

"I would not be gotten into a schoolhouse until I was eight years old. Nor did I accomplish much after I started. I doubt if I had gone to school six months in all when my father died. I was fourteen at the time."

"Remember that whatever may be said by a lady or her friends, it is not part of conduct of a gallant or generous man to take up arms against a woman."