“We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the things that unite.”

Excesses accomplish nothing. Disorder immediately defeats itself.

Segregation is not humiliating but a benefit.

Men grow by having responsibility laid upon them.

There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized peace.

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.

A man’s rootage is more important than his leafage.

I am the friend of peace and mean to preserve it for America so long as I am able. No course of my choosing or of their (nations at war) will lead to war. War can come only by the wilful acts and aggressions of others.

You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand

We grow by our dreams.

If you’ve made up your mind you can do something, you’re absolutely RIGHT.

It does not become America that within her borders, where every man is free to follow the dictates of his conscience, men should raise the cry of church against church. To do that is to strike at the very spirit and heart of America.

The cure for bad politics is the same as the cure for tuberculosis. It is living in the open.

You cannot tear up ancient rootages and safely plant the tree of liberty in soil that is not native to it.

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.

Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness.

Today’s greatest labor-saving device is tomorrow.

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains.

Each has his own tree of ancestors, but at the top of all sits Probably Arboreal.

Baseball, more than any other sport, has a magical way of connecting fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, grandparents and grandchildren and ancestors back down the line. – From The Brooklyn Nine

But if people want to swim in the Thames, if they want to take their lives into their own hands, then they should be able to do so with all the freedom and exhilaration of our woad-painted ancestors.

Ancestor worship, or filial piety so characteristic of Asian cultures, for example, does not really resonate with Americans who favor children, not grandparents.

After all, our families–our ancestors–are our identities. Biology is destiny.

We are all motivated far more than we care to admit by characteristics inherited from our ancestors which individual experiences of childhood can modify, repress, or enhance, but cannot erase.

We live always under the weight of the old and odious customs… of our barbarous ancestors.