“One of the greatest favors that can be bestowed upon the American people is economy in government.”

I want taxes to be less, that the people may have more.

If the people fail to vote, a government will be developed which is not their government. The whole system of American Government rests on the ballot box. Unless citizens perform their duties there, such a system of government is doomed to failure.

They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.

The property of the people belongs to the people. To take it from them by taxation cannot be justified except by urgent public necessity. Unless this principle be recognized our country is no longer secure, our people no longer free.

Industry, thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character.

Silence can never be misquoted.

We want wealth, but there are many other things we want very much more. Among them are peace, honor, charity, and idealism.

We are too solicitous for government intervention, on the theory, first, that the people themselves are helpless, and second, that the Government has superior capacity for action. Often times both of these conclusions are wrong.

A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude.

I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can’t be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.

What men owe to the love and help of good women can never be told.

You can display no greater wisdom than by resisting proposals for needless legislation. It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones.

The attempt to regulate, control, and prescribe all manner of conduct and social relations is very old. It was always the practice of primitive people.

Governments do not make ideals, but ideals make governments.

Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow.

Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create.

In Europe, Socialism is just another political party. It just means that government takes over certain things like hospitals, prisons, military and schools that should not be run for profit.

We have a government of limited power under the Constitution, and we have got to work out our problems on the basis of law.

I do not want a government that will take care of me, I want a government that will make other men take their hands off me so I can take care of myself.

Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people.

We are no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and the duress of small groups of dominant men.

The Republican form of government is the highest form of government: but because of this it requires the highest type of human nature, a type nowhere at present existing.

No man ever saw a government. I live in the midst of the Government of the United States, but I never saw the Government of the United States.

We can’t have a decent government unless those in power exercise self restraint.