“What every man seeks is satisfaction. He deceives himself so long as he imagines it to lie in self-indulgence.”

A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.

Self-determination is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril.

No people are true Christians who do not think constantly of how they can lift their brother and sister, how they can assist their friends, how they can enlighten mankind, how they can make virtue the rule of conduct in the circle in which they live.

The princes among us are those who forget themselves and serve others.

Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence is a practical document for the use of practical men. It is not a thesis for philosophers, but a whip for tyrants; it is not a theory of government but a program of action.

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.

Is there any man here or any woman, let me say is there any child here, who does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?

I believe in Democracy because it releases the energies of every human being.

As a matter of fact and experience, the more power is divided the more irresponsible it becomes.

The shadows that now lie dark upon our path will soon be dispelled and we shall walk with the light all about us if we but be true to ourselves.

What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind.

All things come to him who waits – provided he knows what he is waiting for.

America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand.

It’s harder for a leader to be born in a palace than to be born in a cabin.

Big business is not dangerous because it is big, but because its bigness is an unwholesome inflation created by privileges and exemptions which it ought not to enjoy.

Liberty does not consist in mere declarations of the rights of man. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action.

Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn’t care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely.

Within the sacred walls of libraries we find the best thoughts, the purest feelings, and the most exalted imaginings of our race.

I think we’d be very foolish to expect that we can just import everything from somewhere else and imagine that that’s going to last for ever and ever and ever.

In our imaginations we believe that love is apart from us. Actually there is nothing but love, once we are ready to accept it. When you truly find love, you find yourself.

Who you are as a person will only be amplified once you are ‘famous,’ so if you had a good heart, then I would imagine you’ll have the same good heart but the means to do even more with it.

Our job in this lifetime is not to shape ourselves into some ideal we imagine we ought to be, but to find out who we already are and become it.

The best use of imagination is creativity. The worst use of imagination is anxiety.

What you can imagine depends on what you know. Philosophers who know only philosophy consign themselves to a janitorial role in the great enterprises of exploration that are illuminating the mysteries of our lives.