President Quotes

“The man who disparages music as a luxury and non-essential is doing the nation an injury. Music now, more than ever before, is a national need.”

“We are provincials no longer. The tragic events of the 30 months of vital turmoil through which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. There can be no turning back.”

“We have beaten the living, but we cannot fight the dead.”

“If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.”

“There will be no greater burden on our generation than to organize the forces of liberty in our time in order to make our quest ofa new freedom for America.”

“Every great man of business has got somewhere a touch of the idealist in him.”

“Prosperity is necessarily the first theme of a political campaign.”

“The treasury of America lies in those ambitions, those energies, that cannot be restricted to a special favored class. It depends upon the inventions of unknown men, upon the originations of unknown men, upon the ambitions of unknown men. Every country is renewed out of the ranks of the unknown, not out of the ranks of those already famous and powerful and in control.”

“To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is to make a permanent conquest.”

“Such a mind we must desire to see in a woman,--a mind that stirs without irritating you, that arouses but does not belabour, amuses and yet subtly instructs.”

“The profession I chose was politics; the profession I entered was law. I entered the one because I thought it would lead to the other.”

“America is not a mere body of traders; it is a body of free men. Our greatness is built upon our freedom - is moral, not material. We have a great ardor for gain; but we have a deep passion for the rights of man.”

“The roll of honor consists of the names of meant who have squared their conduct by ideals of duty.”

“Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness.”

“Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down. Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process. Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused.”

“While we are fighting for freedom, we must see, among other things, that labor is free.”

“Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people.”

“A man has deprived himself of the best there is in the world who has deprived himself of this.”

“There is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

“Tolerance is an admirable intellectual gift; but it is of little worth in politics.”

“Tell me what is right and I will fight for it.”

“I am one who fights without a knack of hoping confidentlysimply a Scotch-Irishman who will not be conquered.”

“Wilson was once asked how long it took him to write a speech. He answered, 'That depends. If I am to speak 10 minutes, I need a week for preparation. If 15 minutes, 3 days. If half hour, two days. If an hour, I am ready now.'”

“We want the spirit of America to be efficient; we want American character to be efficient; we want American character to display itself in what I may, perhaps, be allowed to call spiritual efficiency - clear disinterested thinking and fearless action”

“...men are not put into this world to go the path of ease, they are put into this world to go the path of pain and struggle.”