“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”

They may excuse failure but they will not excuse abandonment.

Statesmanship is developed in the hard knocks of general experience, private and public.

Our form of government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith, and I don’t care what it is.

Never question another man’s motive. His wisdom, yes, but not his motives.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.

Freedom has been defined as the opportunity for self-discipline.

An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame – Southern Methodist University game and doesn’t care who wins.

A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.

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.

You must believe in truth that whatever God gives or permits is for your salvation.

We can change the course of events if we go to our knees in believing prayer.

Go ahead and believe in God , if you like, but don’t imagine that you have been given any grounds for such a belief by science.

Believe that He loves you. He wants to help you Himself in the struggles which you must undergo. Believe in His Love, His exceeding Love.

What seems to me white, I will believe black if the hierarchical Church so defines.

The problem of disbelieving in God is not that a man ends up believing nothing. Alas, it is much worse. He ends up believing anything.

If in our hearts we really don’t believe that God loves us as we are, if we are still tainted by the lie that we can do something to make God love us more, we are rejecting the message of the cross.

Childlike surrender and trust, I believe, is the defining spirit of authentic discipleship.