“There are a great many people who are in favor of conservation no matter what it means.”

The intoxication of power rapidly sobers off in the knowledge of its restrictions and under the prompt reminder of an ever-present and not always considerate press, as well as the kindly suggestions that not infrequently come from Congress.

No, the only things which do not bother me are the elements. I can overcome them without a fight. All one has to do to get the best of the elements is to stand pat and one will win.

We are imperfect. We cannot expect perfect government.

A man never knows exactly how the child of his brain will strike other people.

I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.

Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.

Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.

I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God.

The true Mason always carries his working tools everywhere.

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

The man with the average mentality, but with control, with a definite goal, and a clear conception of how it can be gained, and above all, with the power of application and labor, wins in the end.

I know this, and I know it from actual experience in the Orient, that the progress of modern Christian civilization has largely depended on the earnest hard work of the Christian missions of every denomination.

We shall have to begin all over again. [Taft hoped that] the Senators might change their minds, or that the people might change the Senate; instead of which they changed me.

Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.

The world is not going to be saved by legislation.

We, as Unitarians, may feel that the world is coming our way.

It gets you nowhere if the other person’s tail is only just in sight for the second half of the conversation.

Liberals measure compassion by how many people are given welfare. Conservatives measure compassion by how many people no longer need it.

The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.

If conversation was the lyrics, laughter was the music, making time spent together a melody that could be replayed over and over without getting stale.

The trouble with her is that she lacks the power of conversation but not the power of speech.

It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much.

Compassionate conservative. I don’t know what that is, it sounds like a Volvo with a gun rack.

Patriotism has nothing to do with Conservatism.