“Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.”

Any man that resists the present tides that run in the world, will find himself thrown upon a shore so high and barren that it will seem he has been separated from his human kind forever.

When I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing.

The right is more precious than peace.

We are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.

It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilizationitself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things we have always carried closest to our hearts.

A man may be defeated by his own secondary successes.

What is the use of voting? We know that the machines of both parties are subsidized by the same persons, and therefore it is useless to turn in either direction.

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.

I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.

Progressiveness means not standing still when everything else is moving.

The seed of revolution is repression.

There is something better, if possible, that a man can give than his life. That is his living spirit to a service that is not easy, to resist counsels that are hard to resist, to stand against purposes that are difficult to stand against.

The history of liberty is a history of resistance.

The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation—until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.

I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.

Every people has a right to choose the sovereignty under which they shall live.

Religion is simply an ideal. It is an ideal force that tends to free the human being from material bonds.

Anger is an emotion that is very energetic. It is an ideal emotion to turn it around to make it work as a positive force.

Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol or morphine or idealism.

The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.

Please go for your dreams. Whatever your ideals, you can become whatever you want to become.

An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.

Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born.

It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality.