“Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 158 million followers, it will no longer be America.”

History teaches that, when powerful despots can gain something through aggression, they try, by the same methods, to gain more and more and more.

If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.

Wars are stupid and they can start stupidly.

I made two mistakes and both of them are sitting on the Supreme Court. [Referring to Earl Warren and William Brennan]

What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.

The search for a scapegoat is the easiest of all hunting expeditions.

I don’t like the idea of something where you have to depend upon the integrity of the man and not the integrity of the institution.

Shot through the heart, and you’re to blame! you give love, a bad name.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

True delegation implies the courage and readiness to back up a subordinate to the full; it is not to be confused with the slovenly practice of merely ignoring an unpleasant situation in the hope that someone else will handle it.

It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

Pessimism never won any battle.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of the way and let them have it.

There’s no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.

Only Americans can hurt America.

Not everybody can be famous but everybody can be great, because greatness is determined by service.

You don’t have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.

Great things come from hard work and perseverance. No excuses.

A man is a great thing upon the earth and through eternity; but every jot of the greatness of man is unfolded out of woman.

You can accomplish great things.

All exercises that you do with your own bodyweight are great.

Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.

Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.