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Force cannot transmit a moral principle: moral ideas can be received only through the reason of the heart.

Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it.

The generality of men are naturally apt to be swayed by fear rather than reverence, and to refrain from evil rather because of the punishment that it brings than because of its own foulness.

Persuasion is often more effectual than force.

Do you not see, first, that - as a mental abstract - physical force is directly opposed to morality; and secondly, that it practically drives out of existence the moral forces?

A habitual disuse of physical forces totally destroys the moral; and men lose at once the power of protecting themselves, and of discerning the cause of their oppression.

Force does not constitute right... obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

There is great force hidden in a gentle command.

Force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins.

Principles have no real force except when one is well-fed.