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Abraham Lincoln44 quotes
With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations. — Abraham Lincoln · 1865Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. — Abraham Lincoln · 1863We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. — Abraham Lincoln · 1863Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." — Abraham Lincoln · 1865It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. — Abraham Lincoln · 1865All 44 quotes →Franklin D. Roosevelt32 quotes
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1933Yesterday, December 7, 1941-a date which will live in infamy-the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1941We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression-everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want... Everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear... Anywhere in the world. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1941They are unanimous in their hatred for me-and I welcome their hatred. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1936The true conservative seeks to protect the system of private property and free enterprise by correcting such injustices and inequalities as arise from it. The most serious threat to our institutions comes from those who refuse to face the need for change. Liberalism becomes the protection for the far-sighted conservative. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1936A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted-in the air. A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards. A liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest...of his head. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1939All 32 quotes →Ronald Reagan25 quotes
Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! — Ronald Reagan · 1987An evil empire. — Ronald Reagan · 1983In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. — Ronald Reagan · 1981We have listened to the wisdom in an old Russian maxim. And I'm sure you're familiar with it, Mr. General Secretary…The maxim is…trust, but verify. — Ronald Reagan · 1987Back then, government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. — Ronald Reagan · 1986Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. — Ronald Reagan · 1961All 25 quotes →John F. Kennedy22 quotes
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. — John F. Kennedy · 1961For of those to whom much is given, much is required. — John F. Kennedy · 1961Ich bin ein Berliner. — John F. Kennedy · 1963Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. — John F. Kennedy · 1961All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!" — John F. Kennedy · 1963I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish...in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon—if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there. — John F. Kennedy · 1961All 22 quotes →Barack Obama21 quotes
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business—you didn't build that. — Barack Obama · 2012A man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath. — Barack Obama · 2009The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. — Barack Obama · 1965As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. — Barack Obama · 2009We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness. — Barack Obama · 2009The patriots of 1776 did not fight to replace the tyranny of a king with the privileges of a few or the rule of a mob. They gave to us a republic, a government of, and by, and for the people, entrusting each generation to keep safe our founding creed. And for more than two hundred years, we have. — Barack Obama · 2013All 21 quotes →Theodore Roosevelt17 quotes
My position as regards the moneyed interests can be put in a few words. In every civilized society property rights must be carefully safeguarded; ordinarily, and in the great majority of cases, human rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long run identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict between them, human rights must have the upper hand, for property belongs to man and not man to property. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1910Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1899It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1910The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1910On the whole, and in the long run, we shall go up or down together. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1901Believe you can and you're halfway there. — Theodore Roosevelt · 1905All 17 quotes →Frederick Douglass16 quotes
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857It is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced. — Frederick Douglass · 1852If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing up the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. — Frederick Douglass · 1857What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham. — Frederick Douglass · 1852No, I make no pretension to patriotism. So long as my voice can be heard on this or the other side of the Atlantic, I will hold up America to the lightning scorn of moral indignation. In doing this, I shall feel myself discharging the duty of a true patriot; for he is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins. — Frederick Douglass · 1847The man who is right is a majority. He who has God and conscience on his side, has a majority against the universe. Though he does not represent the present state, he represents the future state. If he does not represent what we are, he represents what we ought to be. — Frederick Douglass · 1852All 16 quotes →Winston Churchill16 quotes
Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. — Winston Churchill · 1947I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. — Winston Churchill · 1940From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. — Winston Churchill · 1946I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. — Winston Churchill · 1939Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. — Winston Churchill · 1940This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. — Winston Churchill · 1942All 16 quotes →Woodrow Wilson15 quotes
The world must be made safe for democracy. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917Our whole duty, for the present, at any rate, is summed up in this motto, "America first." — Woodrow Wilson · 1915No nation is fit to sit in judgment upon any other nation. — Woodrow Wilson · 1915America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand. — Woodrow Wilson · 1916We realize that the greatest things that remain to be done must be done with the whole world for stage and in cooperation with the wide and universal forces of mankind, and we are making our spirits ready for those things. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917A general association of nations must be formed... For the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike. — Woodrow Wilson · 1918All 15 quotes →Edmund Burke13 quotes
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. — Edmund Burke · 1784Parties must ever exist in a free country. — Edmund Burke · 1775Every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. — Edmund Burke · 1775Old religious factions are volcanoes burnt out. — Edmund Burke · 1792All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter. — Edmund Burke · 1775Individuals pass like shadows; but the commonwealth is fixed and stable. — Edmund Burke · 1780All 13 quotes →George Washington13 quotes
Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the Spirit of Party, generally. — George Washington · 1796Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world. — George Washington · 1796Observe good faith and justice toward all Nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all... The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. — George Washington · 1796The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign Nations, is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little Political connection as possible. — George Washington · 1796The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave. It is a slave to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest. — George Washington · 1796Avoid the necessity of those overgrown Military establishments, which under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to Republican Liberty. — George Washington · 1796All 13 quotes →Learned Hand13 quotes
Right knows no boundaries, and justice no frontiers; the brotherhood of man is not a domestic institution. — Learned Hand · 1945Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it. — Learned Hand · 1944"I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken." I should like to have that written over the portals of every church, every school, and every court house, and, may I say, of every legislative body in the United States. I should like to have every court begin, "I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that we may be mistaken." — Learned Hand · 1951Our dangers, as it seems to me, are not from the outrageous but from the conforming; not from those who rarely and under the lurid glare of obloquy upset our moral complaisance, or shock us with unaccustomed conduct, but from those, the mass of us, who take their virtues and their tastes, like their shirts and their furniture, from the limited patterns which the market offers. — Learned Hand · 1927The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the minds of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias; the spirit of liberty remembers that not even a sparrow falls to earth unheeded; the spirit of liberty is the spirit of Him who, near two thousand years ago, taught mankind that lesson it has never learned, but has never quite forgotten; that there may be a kingdom where the least shall be heard and considered side by side with the greatest. — Learned Hand · 1944The history of man has just begun: in the aeons which lie before him lie limitless hope or limitless despair. The choice is his; the present choice is ours. It is worth the trial. — Learned Hand · 1945All 13 quotes →Martin Luther King, Jr.13 quotes
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low; the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963I have also decided to stick with love...hate is too great a burden to bear. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1967When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir... America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!" — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1963It is both historically and biologically true that there can be no birth and growth without birth and growing pains. Whenever there is the emergence of the new we confront the recalcitrance of the old. So the tensions which we witness in the world today are indicative of the fact that a new world order is being born and an old order is passing away. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1956All 13 quotes →George W. Bush12 quotes
States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. — George W. Bush · 2002In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed. — George W. Bush · 2003It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world. — George W. Bush · 2005We have a place, all of us, in a long story—a story we continue, but whose end we will not see. It is the story of a new world that became a friend and liberator of the old, the story of a slave-holding society that became a servant of freedom, the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer. It is the American story—a story of flawed and fallible people, united across the generations by grand and enduring ideals. — George W. Bush · 2001We will make no distinction between terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them. — George W. Bush · 2001We have seen their kind before. They're the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism, and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. — George W. Bush · 2001All 12 quotes →Richard Nixon12 quotes
North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that. — Richard Nixon · 1969People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. — Richard Nixon · 1973Let us be proud that our system has produced and provided more freedom and more abundance, more widely shared, than any system in the history of the world. — Richard Nixon · 1973We find ourselves rich in goods, but ragged in spirit; reaching with magnificent precision for the moon, but falling into raucous discord on earth. We are caught in war, wanting peace. We are torn by division, wanting unity. We see around us empty lives, wanting fulfillment. We see tasks that need doing, waiting for hands to do them. — Richard Nixon · 1969Our children have been taught to be ashamed of their country, ashamed of their parents, ashamed of America's record at home and of its role in the world. At every turn, we have been beset by those who find everything wrong with America and little that is right. But I am confident that this will not be the judgment of history on these remarkable times in which we are privileged to live. — Richard Nixon · 1973In our own lives, let each of us ask—not just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself? In the challenges we face together, let each of us ask—not just how can government help, but how can I help? — Richard Nixon · 1973All 12 quotes →Calvin Coolidge11 quotes
The chief business of the American people is business. — Calvin Coolidge · 1925If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers. — Calvin Coolidge · 1926America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. — Calvin Coolidge · 1925Democracy is not tearing down; it is a building up. It is not denial of the divine right of Kings; it supplements that claim with the assertion of the divine right of all men. It does not destroy; it fulfills. It is the consummation of all theories of government, to the spirit of which all the nations of the Earth must yield. It is the great constructive course of the ages. — Calvin Coolidge · 1916Civilization and profits go hand in hand. — Calvin Coolidge · 1920But there is another element, more important than all, without which there can not be the slightest hope of a permanent peace. That element lies in the heart of humanity. Unless the desire for peace be cherished there, unless this fundamental and only natural source of brotherly love be cultivated to its highest degree, all artificial efforts will be in vain. Peace will come when there is realization that only under a reign of law, based on righteousness and supported by the religious conviction of the brotherhood of man, can there be any hope of a complete and satisfying life. — Calvin Coolidge · 1925All 11 quotes →Dwight D. Eisenhower11 quotes
Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1953This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience... We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1961Every gun that is made, ever warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1953You have broader considerations that might follow what you would call the "falling domino" principle. You have a row of dominoes set up, you knock over the first one, and what will happen to the last one is the certainty that it will go over very quickly. So you could have a beginning of a disintegration that would have the most profound influences. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1954Plans are worthless, but planning is everything. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1957Freedom is pitted against slavery; lightness against the dark. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1953All 11 quotes →George H.W. Bush11 quotes
Read my lips: no new taxes. — George H.W. Bush · 1988Clearly, mistakes were made. — George H.W. Bush · 1986A line has been drawn in the sand. — George H.W. Bush · 1990I have spoken of a Thousand Points of Light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good. We will work hand in hand, encouraging, sometimes leading, sometimes being led. — George H.W. Bush · 1989The biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: By the grace of God, America won the Cold War. — George H.W. Bush · 1992We're a nation of community, of thousands and tens of thousands of ethnic, religious, social, business, labor union, neighborhood, regional and other organizations, all of them varied, voluntary, and unique... A brillant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky. — George H.W. Bush · 1988All 11 quotes →William Henry Harrison11 quotes
It was the remark of a Roman consul in an early period of that celebrated Republic that a most striking contrast was observable in the conduct of candidates for offices of power and trust before and after obtaining them, they seldom carrying out in the latter case the pledges and promises made in the former. — William Henry Harrison · 1841As long as the love of power is a dominant passion of the human bosom, and as long as the understandings of men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon their passions and prejudices, so long will the liberties of a people depend on their own constant attention to its preservation. — William Henry Harrison · 1841If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends. Beyond that they become destructive of public virtue, the parent of a spirit antagonist to that of liberty, and eventually its inevitable conqueror. — William Henry Harrison · 1841We admit of no government by divine right, believing that so far as power is concerned the Beneficent Creator has made no distinction amongst men; that all are upon an equality, and that the only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed. — William Henry Harrison · 1841Always the friend of my countrymen, never their flatterer, it becomes my duty to say to them from this high place to which their partiality has exalted me that there exists in the land a spirit hostile to their best interests—hostile to liberty itself. It is a spirit contracted in its views, selfish in its objects. — William Henry Harrison · 1841Those who are called upon to administer it must recognize as its leading principle the duty of shaping their measures so as to produce the greatest good to the greatest number. — William Henry Harrison · 1841All 11 quotes →Bill Clinton10 quotes
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. — Bill Clinton · 1993The era of big government is over. — Bill Clinton · 1996America stands alone as the world's indispensable nation. — Bill Clinton · 1997What a century it has been. America became the world's mightiest industrial power, saved the world from tyranny in two World Wars and a long Cold War, and time and again reached out across the globe to millions who, like us, longed for the blessings of liberty. — Bill Clinton · 1997Today, a generation raised in the shadows of the cold war assumes new responsibilities in a world warmed by the sunshine of freedom but threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues. — Bill Clinton · 1993At the dawn of the 21st century, a free people must now choose to shape the forces of the information age and the global society, to unleash the limitless potential of all our people, and yes, to form a more perfect Union. — Bill Clinton · 1997All 10 quotes →Donald Trump10 quotes
I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters. — Donald Trump · 2016I alone can fix it. — Donald Trump · 2016I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall. — Donald Trump · 2015When Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best... They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people. — Donald Trump · 2015Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge; and the crime and gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. — Donald Trump · 2017From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it’s going to be only America First. — Donald Trump · 2017All 10 quotes →Harry Truman10 quotes
Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima... The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East. — Harry Truman · 1945I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures. — Harry Truman · 1947Having found the bomb we have used it. — Harry Truman · 1945The first half of this century has been marked by unprecedented and brutal attacks on the rights of man, and by the two most frightful wars in history. The supreme need of our time is for men to learn to live together in peace and harmony. — Harry Truman · 1949Communism is based on the belief that man is so weak and inadequate that he is unable to govern himself, and therefore requires the rule of strong masters. Democracy is based on the conviction that man has the moral and intellectual capacity, as well as the inalienable right, to govern himself with reason and justice. — Harry Truman · 1949Communism subjects the individual to arrest without lawful cause, punishment without trial, and forced labor as the chattel of the state. It decrees what information he shall receive, what art he shall produce, what leaders he shall follow, and what thoughts he shall think. — Harry Truman · 1949All 10 quotes →Andrew Jackson9 quotes
Eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty. — Andrew Jackson · 1837There are no necessary evils in the government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favor alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing. — Andrew Jackson · 1832Constantly bearing in mind that in entering into society "individuals must give up a share of liberty to preserve the rest," it will be my desire so to discharge my duties as to foster with our brethren in all parts of the country a spirit of liberal concession and compromise. — Andrew Jackson · 1833The loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a dissolution of the union. — Andrew Jackson · 1833As long as our Government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of person and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending. — Andrew Jackson · 1833The destruction of our state governments or the annihilation of their control over the local concerns of the people would lead directly to revolution and anarchy, and finally to despotism and military domination. In proportion, therefore, as the general government encroaches upon the rights of the states, in the same proportion does it impair its own power and detract from its ability to fulfill the purposes of its creation. — Andrew Jackson · 1833All 9 quotes →Lyndon B. Johnson9 quotes
For this is what America is all about. It is the uncrossed desert and the unclimbed ridge. It is the star that is not reached and the harvest that's sleeping in the unplowed ground. Is our world gone? We say farewell. Is a new world coming? We welcome it, and we will bend it to the hopes of man. — Lyndon B. Johnson · 1965We still seek no wider war. — Lyndon B. Johnson · 1964Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope—some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. Our task is to help replace their despair with opportunity. This administration today, here and now, declares unconditional war on poverty in America. — Lyndon B. Johnson · 1964We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10,000 miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves. — Lyndon B. Johnson · 1964Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose. — Lyndon B. Johnson · 1963We are a nation of believers. Underneath the clamor of building and the rush of our day's pursuits, we are believers in justice and liberty and in our own union. We believe that every man must some day be free. — Lyndon B. Johnson · 1965All 9 quotes →Thomas Jefferson9 quotes
If there be any among us who would wish to dissolve this Union or to change its republican form, let them stand undisturbed as monuments of the safety with which error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it. — Thomas Jefferson · 1801Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question. — Thomas Jefferson · 1801With experience enough in subordinate offices to have seen the difficulties of this the greatest of all, I have learnt to expect that it will rarely fall to the lot of imperfect man to retire from this station with the reputation and the favor which bring him into it. — Thomas Jefferson · 1801Freedom of religion; freedom of the press, and freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation. — Thomas Jefferson · 1801The press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint; the public judgment will correct false reasonings and opinions, on a full hearing of all parties; and no other definite line can be drawn between the inestimable liberty of the press and its demoralizing licentiousness. — Thomas Jefferson · 1805A wise and frugal Government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. — Thomas Jefferson · 1801All 9 quotes →Benjamin Disraeli8 quotes
Justice is truth in action. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1851Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1877The Continent will not suffer England to be the workshop of the world. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1838Finality, Sir, is not the language of politics. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1859In a progressive country change is constant; and the great question is, not whether you should resist change which is inevitable, but whether that change should be carried out in deference to the manners, the customs, the laws, the traditions of the people, or in deference to abstract principles and arbitrary and general doctrines. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1867Is man an ape or an angel? My Lord, I am on the side of the angels. — Benjamin Disraeli · 1864All 8 quotes →Socrates8 quotes
The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates · 399 BCI know that I do not know. — Socrates · 399 BCSocrates, he says, breaks the law by corrupting young men and not recognizing the gods that the city recognizes, but some other new deities. — Socrates · 399 BCTo fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise, without being wise: for it is to think that we know what we do not know. — Socrates · 399 BCVirtue does not come from money, but from virtue comes money and all other good things to man, both to the individual and to the state. — Socrates · 399 BCBut already it is time to depart, for me to die, for you to go on living; which of us takes the better course, is not known to anyone except God. — Socrates · 399 BCAll 8 quotes →Herbert Hoover7 quotes
We were challenged with a peace-time choice between the American System of rugged individualism and a European philosophy of diametrically opposed doctrines-doctrines of paternalism and static socialism. — Herbert Hoover · 1928Surely civilization is old enough, surely mankind is mature enough so that we ought in our own lifetime to find a way to permanent peace. — Herbert Hoover · 1929The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law. — Herbert Hoover · 1929Older men declare war. But it is youth who must fight and die. — Herbert Hoover · 1944Ours is a land rich in resources; stimulating in its glorious beauty; filled with millions of happy homes; blessed with comfort and opportunity. In no nation are the institutions of progress more advanced. In no nation are the fruits of accomplishment more secure. In no nation is the government more worthy of respect. No country is more loved by its people. I have an abiding faith in their capacity, integrity, and high purpose. I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope. — Herbert Hoover · 1929If we would prevent the growth of class distinctions and would constantly refresh our leadership with the ideals of our people, we must draw constantly from the general mass. The full opportunity for every boy and girl to rise through the selective processes of education can alone secure to us this leadership. — Herbert Hoover · 1929All 7 quotes →James Monroe7 quotes
In our whole system, national and State, we have shunned all the defects which unceasingly preyed on the vitals and destroyed the ancient Republics. — James Monroe · 1821There is every reason to believe that our system will soon attain the highest degree of perfection of which human institutions are capable, and that the movement in all its branches will exhibit such a degree of order and harmony as to command the admiration and respect of the civilized world. — James Monroe · 1821Never did a government commence under auspices so favorable, nor ever was success so complete. If we look to the history of other nations, ancient or modern, we find no example of a growth so rapid, so gigantic, of a people so prosperous and happy. — James Monroe · 1817It is only when the people become ignorant and corrupt, when they degenerate into a populace, that they are incapable of exercising the sovereignty. Usurpation is then an easy attainment, and an usurper soon found. The people themselves become the willing instruments of their own debasement and ruin. Let us, then, look to the great cause, and endeavor to preserve it in full force. Let us by all wise and constitutional measures promote intelligence among the people as the best means of preserving our liberties. — James Monroe · 1817The American people have encountered together great dangers and sustained severe trials with success. They constitute one great family with a common interest. — James Monroe · 1817Europe is again unsettled and the prospect of war increasing. Should the flame light up in any quarter, how far it may extend it is impossible to foresee. It is our peculiar felicity to be altogether unconnected with the causes which produce this menacing aspect elsewhere. With every power we are in perfect amity, and it is our interest to remain so if it be practicable on just conditions. — James Monroe · 1821All 7 quotes →John Quincy Adams7 quotes
Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy. — John Quincy Adams · 1821From the experience of the past we derive instructive lessons for the future. — John Quincy Adams · 1825Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air. — John Quincy Adams · 1802It is a source of gratification and of encouragement to me to observe that the great result of this experiment upon the theory of human rights has at the close of that generation by which it was formed been crowned with success equal to the most sanguine expectations of its founders. — John Quincy Adams · 1825The forest has fallen by the ax of our woodsmen; the soil has been made to teem by the tillage of our farmers; our commerce has whitened every ocean. The dominion of man over physical nature has been extended by the invention of our artists. — John Quincy Adams · 1825Whatsoever is of domestic concernment, unconnected with the other members of the Union or with foreign lands, belongs exclusively to the administration of the State governments. Whatsoever directly involves the rights and interests of the federative fraternity or of foreign powers is of the resort of this General Government. The duties of both are obvious in the general principle, though sometimes perplexed with difficulties in the detail. — John Quincy Adams · 1825All 7 quotes →