Two kinds of men generally best succeed in political life; men of no principle, but of great talent; and men of no talent, but of one principle - that of obedience to their superiors.

He went on to attend Harvard Law School from which he graduated in 1833. The Wendell Phillips Prize at Harvard University is awarded to the best orator in the sophomore class. The Wendell Phillps Award establshhed in 1896 is bestowed annually upon a member of Tufts University's senior class.