“When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike, you do not wait until he has struck to crush him.”

Against naked force the only possible defense is naked force. The aggressor makes the rules for such a war; the defenders have no alternative but matching destruction with more destruction, slaughter with greater slaughter.

All of our people all over the country-except the pure-blooded Indians-are immigrants or descendants of immigrants, including even those who came over here on the Mayflower.

The presidency is not merely an administrative office. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership.

Do Something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.

We are trying to construct a more inclusive society. We are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

There are as many opinions as there are experts.

To some generations much is given. Of other generations, much is expected.

Rules are not necessarily sacred, principles are.

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

An election cannot give a country a firm sense of direction if it has two or more national parties which merely have different names but are as alike in their principles and aims as peas in the same pod.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

It is better to swallow words than to have to eat them later.

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country… By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level – I mean the wages of decent living.

We have always known that heedless self interest was bad morals, we now know that it is bad economics.

Presidents are selected, not elected.