“I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.”

The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation—until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.

I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.

Every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live.

We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the world.

I have long enjoyed the friendship and companionship of Republicans because I am by instinct a teacher, and I would like to teach them something.

I would not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with great respect of the past.

We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men.

Business underlies everything in our national life, including our spiritual life. Witness the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.

The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is, not to frighten them, but to challenge them.

The man who has no vision will undertake no great enterprise.

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.

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.

“Genius is divine perseverance.” Divine patience I believe he originally used, perseverance is better in my opinion. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have.

We are intensely proud of their noble record and are glad to have had the whole world see how irresistible they are in their might when a cause which America holds dear is at stake. The whole nation has reason to be proud of them.

One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.

Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness and all the distemper’s that make an ordered life impossible.

I hate commas in the wrong places.

A truly good book teaches me better than to read it.

I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.

When all else fails, give up and go to the library.

I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn’t be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.

The real war will never get in the books.

Literature is my Utopia

For my whole life, my favorite activity was reading. It’s not the most social pastime.