Quotes · Skopia

814 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 · 1865 We 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 · 1861 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 · 1961 But, 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 · 1863 When 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. · 1963 Fondly 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 · 1865 All 106 quotes →

Political theory62 quotes

Every Communist must grasp the truth: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." — Mao Zedong · 1938 In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. — Ronald Reagan · 1981 There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. — Bill Clinton · 1993 Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in the world must first come to pass in the heart of America. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1953 A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai Stevenson · 1952 The ballot is stronger than the bullet. — Abraham Lincoln · 1856 All 62 quotes →

Politics44 quotes

Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. — Winston Churchill · 1947 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857 Every Communist must grasp the truth: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." — Mao Zedong · 1938 Parties must ever exist in a free country. — Edmund Burke · 1775 In politics, if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman. — Margaret Thatcher · 1965 A 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 · 1939 All 44 quotes →

Freedom27 quotes

When 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. · 1963 The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. — Edmund Burke · 1784 A free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. — Adlai Stevenson · 1952 We 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 · 1941 Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom: it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. — William Pitt, Earl of Chatham · 1783 The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime, and the punishment of his guilt. — John Philpot Curran · 1816 All 27 quotes →

Cold War26 quotes

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! — Ronald Reagan · 1987 An evil empire. — Ronald Reagan · 1983 Ich bin ein Berliner. — John F. Kennedy · 1963 From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. — Winston Churchill · 1946 We 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 · 1987 I have here in my hand a list of 205... A list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department. — Joseph McCarthy · 1950 All 26 quotes →

Progress26 quotes

I 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. · 1963 Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857 Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul. — Mark Twain · 1884 If 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 · 1857 Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned... Until there are no longer first-class and second-class citizens of any nation... Until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes... Until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race... Until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained. — Haile Selassie I · 1963 The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. — Barack Obama · 1965 All 26 quotes →

International politics25 quotes

Ich bin ein Berliner. — John F. Kennedy · 1963 I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. — Winston Churchill · 1939 The world must be made safe for democracy. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917 Outside the Kingdom of the Lord there is no nation which is greater than any other…God and history will remember your judgment. — Haile Selassie I · 1936 Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world. — George Washington · 1796 Observe 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 · 1796 All 25 quotes →

American foreign policy24 quotes

Our whole duty, for the present, at any rate, is summed up in this motto, "America first." — Woodrow Wilson · 1915 I 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 · 1947 Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. — John F. Kennedy · 1961 Observe 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 · 1796 The 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 · 1796 In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1933 All 24 quotes →

World War II24 quotes

Yesterday, 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 · 1941 I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. — Winston Churchill · 1940 Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. — Winston Churchill · 1940 This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. — Winston Churchill · 1942 Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, 'This was their finest hour.' — Winston Churchill · 1940 We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. — Winston Churchill · 1940 All 24 quotes →

America22 quotes

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. — Abraham Lincoln · 1838 The destiny of the colored American…is the destiny of America. — Frederick Douglass · 1862 Our flag is red, white and blue, but our nation is a rainbow-red, yellow, brown, black and white-and all are precious in God's sight. America is not like a blanket, one piece of unbroken cloth-the same color, the same texture, the same size. It is more like a quilt-many patches, many pieces, many colors, many sizes, all woven and held together by a common thread. — Jesse Jackson · 1984 We 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 · 2009 We 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 · 2001 We're too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. We're not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. — Ronald Reagan · 1981 All 22 quotes →

Political progress22 quotes

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass · 1857 If 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 · 1857 The 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 · 1852 It is the glory of each generation to make its own precedents. — Belva Lockwood · 1877 Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight, I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1968 If 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 · 1926 All 22 quotes →

War20 quotes

Carthage must be destroyed. — Cato the Elder · 149 BC In war, indeed, there can be no substitute for victory. — Douglas MacArthur · 1951 There are no warlike peoples-just warlike leaders. — Ralph J. Bunche · 1950 Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory. — General George S. Patton · 1933 Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BC War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terrible. — Abraham Lincoln · 1864 All 20 quotes →

American Civil War18 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 · 1865 We 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 · 1861 But, 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 · 1863 Fondly 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 · 1865 It 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 · 1865 It 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 · 1852 All 18 quotes →

Democracy17 quotes

Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. — Winston Churchill · 1947 Parties must ever exist in a free country. — Edmund Burke · 1775 A monarchy is a merchantman which sails well, but will sometimes strike on a rock, and go to the bottom; a republic is a raft which will never sink, but then your feet are always in the water. — Fisher Ames · 1795 What other form of government, indeed, can so well deserve our esteem and love? — John Adams · 1797 Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. — Pericles · 430 BC The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history. It permeated the ancient life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the Middle Ages. It was written in Magna Charta. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1941 All 17 quotes →

Government17 quotes

Democracy is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. — Winston Churchill · 1947 There 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 · 1832 England is the mother of parliaments. — John Bright · 1865 The government strong enough to give you what you want is strong enough to take it all away. — Barry Goldwater · 1964 Sometimes 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 · 1801 Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. — Abraham Lincoln · 1848 All 17 quotes →

Equality16 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. · 1963 Four 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 · 1863 When 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. · 1963 I hold that if the Almighty had ever made a set of men that should do all the eating and none of the work, he would have made them with mouths only and no hands, and if he had ever made another class that he intended should do all the work and none of the eating, he would have made them without mouths and with all hands. — Abraham Lincoln · 1859 We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton · 1848 If 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 · 1926 All 16 quotes →

Slavery16 quotes

Fondly 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 · 1865 It 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 · 1865 A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. — Abraham Lincoln · 1858 Without slavery the rebellion could never have existed; without slavery it could not continue. — Abraham Lincoln · 1862 If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? — Abraham Lincoln · 1865 Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature—opposition to it, is [in?] his love of justice. — Abraham Lincoln · 1854 All 16 quotes →

America and the world14 quotes

The world must be made safe for democracy. — Woodrow Wilson · 1917 America stands alone as the world's indispensable nation. — Bill Clinton · 1997 America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand. — Woodrow Wilson · 1916 America seeks no earthly empire built on blood and force. No ambition, no temptation, lures her to thought of foreign dominions. — Calvin Coolidge · 1925 We will not prematurely or unnecessarily risk the costs of worldwide nuclear war in which even the fruits of victory would be ashes in our mouth--but neither will we shrink from that risk at any time it must be faced...I call upon Chairman Khrushchev to halt and eliminate this clandestine, reckless, and provocative threat to world peace and to stable relations between our two nations...He has an opportunity now to move the world back from the abyss of destruction. — John F. Kennedy · 1962 We 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 · 1917 All 14 quotes →

US Constitution14 quotes

When 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. · 1963 This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861 I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual... Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever - it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861 Our Constitution is so simple, so practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1933 One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression. — James K. Polk · 1845 Looking back to it as a sacred instrument carefully and not easily framed; remembering that it was throughout a work of concession and compromise; viewing it as limited to national objects; regarding it as leaving to the people and the States all power not explicitly parted with, I shall endeavor to preserve, protect, and defend it by anxiously referring to its provision for direction in every action. — Martin Van Buren · 1837 All 14 quotes →

American experiment11 quotes

A republic, if you can keep it. — Benjamin Franklin · 1787 This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861 The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. — George Washington · 1796 If all do not join now to save the good old ship of the Union on this voyage, nobody will have a chance to pilot her on another voyage. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861 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 · 1821 As 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 · 1833 All 11 quotes →

Civil rights11 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. · 1963 When 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. · 1963 Segregation now, segregation tomorrow and segregation forever! — George Wallace · 1963 Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight, I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1968 Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1962 We are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for...human rights. — Malcolm X · 1964 All 11 quotes →

Rule of law11 quotes

Our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great republic is a government of laws and not of men. — Gerald Ford · 1974 Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BC Our constitution is named a democracy, because it is in the hands not of the few but of the many. But our laws secure equal justice for all in their private disputes, and our public opinion welcomes and honors talent in every branch of achievement, not for any sectional reason but on grounds of excellence alone. And as we give free play to all in our public life, so we care the same spirit into our daily relations with one another... Open and friendly in our private intercourse, in our public acts we keep strictly within the control of law. We acknowledge the restraint of authority, and to the laws, more especially to those which offer protection to the oppressed and those unwritten ordinances whose transgression brings admitted shame. — Pericles · 430 BC To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity, among strangers, as nations or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization. — Abraham Lincoln · 1859 The law, in all vicissitudes of government, fluctuations of the passions, or flights of enthusiasm, will preserve a steady undeviating course; it will not bend to the uncertain wishes, imaginations, and wanton tempers of men... On the one hand it is inexorable to the cries and lamentations of the prisoners; on the other it is deaf, deaf as an adder to the clamours of the populace. — John Adams · 1770 Lynchings must not be tolerated in a great and civilized country like the United States; courts, not mobs, must execute the penalties of the law. — William McKinley · 1897 All 11 quotes →

Citizen and state10 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 · 1961 There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. — Franklin D. Roosevelt · 1936 We are a nation that has a government—not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. — Ronald Reagan · 1981 What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. — Barack Obama · 2009 Our New Beginning is a continuation of that beginning created two centuries ago when, for the first time in history, government, the people said, was not our master, it is our servant; its only power that which we the people allow it to have. — Ronald Reagan · 1985 It's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work—work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it. — Ronald Reagan · 1981 All 10 quotes →

Law10 quotes

Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BC I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869 There is but one law for all, namely, that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity, — the Law of Nature and of Nations. — Edmund Burke · 1794 The intention of the lawgiver is the law. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861 Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless. — Martin Luther King, Jr. · 1962 Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny. — Edmund Burke · 1780 All 10 quotes →

American government9 quotes

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861 I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual... Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Constitution, and the Union will endure forever - it being impossible to destroy it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. — Abraham Lincoln · 1861 The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. — George Washington · 1796 The loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a dissolution of the union. — Andrew Jackson · 1833 The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. — Barack Obama · 2009 Whatsoever 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 · 1825 All 9 quotes →

Isolationism9 quotes

Our whole duty, for the present, at any rate, is summed up in this motto, "America first." — Woodrow Wilson · 1915 Tis our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances, with any portion of the foreign world. — George Washington · 1796 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 · 1821 No nation can longer be a fortress, lone and strong and safe. And any people, seeking such shelter for themselves, can now build only their own prison. — Dwight D. Eisenhower · 1957 We have no disposition and we disclaim all right to meddle in disputes, whether internal or foreign, that may molest other countries, regarding them in their actual state as social communities, and preserving a strict neutrality in all their controversies. — Martin Van Buren · 1837 America, our America, the America builded on the foundation laid by the inspired fathers, can be a party to no permanent military alliance. It can enter into no political commitments, nor assume any economic obligations which will subject our decisions to any other than our own authority. — Warren G. Harding · 1921 All 9 quotes →

Legal theory9 quotes

Laws are silent in time of war. — Cicero · 52 BC I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution. — Ulysses S. Grant · 1869 Corporations are people, my friend. — Mitt Romney · 2011 One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression. — James K. Polk · 1845 We are under a Constitution, but the Constitution is what the judges say it is. — Charles Evans Hughes · 1907 An advocate, by the sacred duty which he owes his client, knows, in the discharge of that office, but one person in the world, that client and none other. To save that client... Is the highest and most unquestioned of his duties; And he must not regard the alarm, the suffering, the torment, the destruction which he may bring upon any other. Nay... He must go on reckless of the consequences, if his fate, it should unhappily be, to involve his country in confusion for his client's protection. — Henry Peter Brougham · 1820 All 9 quotes →

Nuclear weapons9 quotes

We 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 · 1987 The enemy has begun to employ a new and most cruel bomb, the power of which to do damage is indeed incalculable, taking the toll of many innocent lives. Should we continue to fight, it would not only result in an ultimate collapse and obliteration of the Japanese nation, but also it would lead to the total extinction of human civilization. Such being the case, how are we to save the millions of our subjects, or to atone ourselves before the hallowed spirits of our imperial ancestors?... It is according to the dictate of time and fate that we have resolved to pave the way for a grand peace for all the generations to come by enduring the unavoidable and suffering what is insufferable. — Emperor Hirohito · 1945 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 · 1945 The war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage. — Emperor Hirohito · 1945 It did not take atomic weapons to make man want peace, a peace that would last. But the atomic bomb was the turn of the screw. It has made the prospect of future war unendurable. — J. Robert Oppenheimer · 1946 Behind the black portent of the new atomic age lies a hope which, seized upon with faith, can work our salvation…we must elect world peace or world destruction. — Bernard Baruch · 1946 All 9 quotes →

Revolution9 quotes

A revolution is a struggle to the death between the future and the past. — Fidel Castro · 1961 Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. — Abraham Lincoln · 1848 Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. — John F. Kennedy · 1977 Revolutions are not made; they come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak. It comes out of the past. Its foundations are laid far back. — Wendell Phillips · 1852 Citizens, would you want a revolution without revolution? — Maximilien Robespierre · 1792 What a glorious morning is this. — Samuel Adams · 1775 All 9 quotes →

US and Native American relations9 quotes

When the white men came we gave them lands, and did not wish to hurt them. But the white man drove us back and took our lands. Then the Great Father made us many promises, but they are not kept. He promised to give us large presents, and when they came to us they were small; they seemed to be lost on the way. — Red Cloud · 1870 If you tie up a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth, and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented, nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the great white chiefs where they get their authority to say the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They can not tell me. — Chief Joseph · 1879 From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever. — Chief Joseph · 1877 I am tired of fighting... I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. — Chief Joseph · 1877 Where today are the Pequot? Where are the Narragansett, the Mohican, the Pokanoket, and many other once powerful tribes of our people? They have vanished before the avarice and oppression of the white man, as snow before the summer sun. — Tecumseh · 1799 Once I moved about like the wind. Now I surrender to you and that is all. — Geronimo · 1886 All 9 quotes →

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