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

We are not put into this world to sit still and know; we are put into it to act.

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.

By ensuring that no one in government has too much power, the Constitution helps protect ordinary Americans every day against abuse of power by those in authority.

Every age that has historical status is governed by aristocracies.

No country can be called free which is governed by an absolute power; and it matters not whether it be an absolute royal power or an absolute legislative power, as the consequences will be the same to the people.

Do you know what happens with people who cannot govern themselves? That’s right. Others come in to govern for them.

Beware the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry.

Government cannot make us equal; it can only recognize, respect, and protect us as equal before the law.

The world is not going to fall as long as there is confidence in governments and in banking institutions and the financial system.

The ratio between supervisory and producing personnel is always highest where the intellectuals are in power. In a Communist country it takes half the population to supervise the other half.