“It is difficult for men in high office to avoid the malady of self-delusion. They are always surrounded by worshipers. They are constantly, and for the most part sincerely, assured of their greatness.”

Unless the people, through unified action, arise and take charge of their government, they will find that their government has taken charge of them. Independence and liberty will be gone, and the general public will find itself in a condition of servitude to an aggregation of organized and selfish interest.

Anytime you don’t want anything you get it.

If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions.

You can’t increase prosperity by taxing success.

School is not the end but only the beginning of an education.

Our government rests upon religion. It is from that source that we derive our reverance for truth and justice, for equality and liberty, and for the rights of mankind. Unless the people believe in these principles they cannot believe in our government.

Wherever despotism abounds, the sources of public information are the first to be brought under its control.

The welfare of the weakest and the welfare of the most powerful are inseparably bound together. The general welfare cannot be provided for in any one act, but it is well to remember that the benefit of one is the benefit of all, and the neglect of one is the neglect of all.

American ideals do not require to be changed so much as they require to be understood and applied.

There is no justification for public interference with purely private concerns.

If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.

In a republic the first rule for the guidance of the citizen is obedience of the law.

A display of reason rather than a threat of force should be the determining factor in the intercourse among nations.

Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.

The danger to America is not in the direction of the failure to maintain its economic position, but in the direction of the failure to maintain its ideals.

There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.

It is not difficult to avoid death, gentlemen of the jury; it is much more difficult to avoid wickedness, for it runs faster than death.

Freedom is difficult things.

Man needs his difficulties because they are necessary to enjoy success.

It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality.

Unless one lives and loves in the trenches, it is difficult to remember that the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.

Love always brings difficulties, that is true, but the good side of it is that it gives energy.

Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.

It’s a strange, eerie sensation to fly a lunar landing trajectory not difficult, but somewhat complex and unforgiving.