“No man ever saw a government. I live in the midst of the Government of the United States, but I never saw the Government of the United States.”

Life does not consist in thinking, it consists in acting.

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.

The governor of Texas, who, when asked if the Bible should also be taught in Spanish, replied that ‘if English was good enough for Jesus, then it’s good enough for me.

All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.

I want to preach a new doctrine. A complete separation of business and government.

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.

Government cannot close its eyes to the pollution of waters, to the erosion of soil, to the slashing of forests any more than it can close its eyes to the need for slum clearance and schools.

In our democracy officers of the government are the servants, and never the masters of the people.

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.