“We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.”

I have noticed that nothing I never said ever did me any harm.

If American democracy is to remain the greatest hope of humanity, it must continue abundantly in the faith of the Bible.

What we need is not more Federal government, but better local government.

You can’t know too much, but you can say too much.

One of the first lessons a president has to learn is that every word he says weighs a ton.

Nothing is easier than spending public money. It does not appear to belong to anybody. The temptation is overwhelming to bestow it on somebody.

In life there is nothing more common than talent and intelligence. What is missing is passion, persistence, commitment, and dedication.

We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic either of an undeveloped people, or of a decadent civilization. America is neither.

All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.

The higher state to which [America] seeks the allegiance of all mankind is not of human, but of divine origin. She cherishes no purpose save to merit the favor of Almighty God.

Four-fifths of all our troubles would disappear, if we would only sit down and keep still.

Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.

The best help that benevolence and philanthropy can give is that which induces everybody to help himself.

Whether one traces his Americanism back three centuries to the Mayflower, or three years to the steerage, is not half so important as whether his Americanism of today is real and genuine. No matter by what various crafts we came here, we are all now in the same boat.

Don’t expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.

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.

I am not ambitious to appear a man of letters: I could be content the world should think I had scarce looked upon any other book than that of nature.

All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

Few are more unhappy than those who have great ambition, but little energy to urge it into activity.

We now know most things that can be measured in this world, except the bounds of human ambition!

I don’t have any ambition.

I’ve got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom.

Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already I am.

Secret of my success was to have ambition and know minds of men.