“I know this, and I know it from actual experience in the Orient, that the progress of modern Christian civilization has largely depended on the earnest hard work of the Christian missions of every denomination.”

In the public interest, therefore, it is better that we lose the services of the exceptions who are good Judges after they are seventy and avoid the presence on the Bench of men who are not able to keep up with the work, or to perform it satisfactorily.

The diplomacy of the present administration has sought to respond to the modern idea of commercial intercourse. This policy has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets.

There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach – it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end.

Don’t write so that you can be understood, write so that you can’t be misunderstood.

The Masonic system represents a stupendous and beautiful fabric, founded on universal purity, to rule and direct our passions, to have faith and love in God, and charity toward man.

The true Mason is ever vigilant for subtle traces of character and personality flaws which daily experience brings out.

I’ll be damned if I am not getting tired of this. It seems to be the profession of a President simply to hear other people talk.

There is not a subject in which I take a deeper interest than I do in the development of Alaska, and I propose, if Congress will follow by recommendations, to do something in that territory that will make it move on.

I think I might as well give up being a candidate. There are so many people in the country who don’t like me.

Politics make me sick.

When the history of this period is written, [William Jennings] Bryan will stand out as one of the most remarkable men of his generation and one of the biggest political men of our country.

I think his greatest fault is his failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done. This is a great weakness in any man.

Action for which I become responsible, or for which my administration becomes responsible, shall be within the law.

The cheerful loser is a sort of winner.

I don’t know the man I admire more than [Charles Evans] Hughes. If ever I have the chance I shall offer him the Chief Justiceship.

We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.

If there is always light, you don’t experience light anymore. You have to have the rhythm of light and darkness.

Depression is the most unpleasant thing I have ever experienced. It is that absence of being able to envisage that you will ever be cheerful again.

Certain things in life simply have to be experienced -and never explained. Love is such a thing.

I live in my deepest hell and from there I cannot fall any further.

Experience has taught us, that men will not adopt and carry into execution measures best calculated for their own good, without the intervention of a coercive power.

In order to know the light, we must first experience the darkness.

If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.

Experience will guide us to the rules. You cannot make rules precede practical experience.