Herbert Hoover
Man is still by instinct a predatory animal given to devilish aggression. The discoveries of science have immensely increased productivity of material things. They have increased the standards of living and comfort. They have eliminated infinite drudgery. They have increased leisure. But that gives more time for devilment. The work of science has eliminated much disease and suffering. It has increased the length of life. That, together with increase in productivity, has resulted in vastly increased populations. Also it increased the number of people engaged in devilment.Collection: Life
It is those moral and spiritual qualities which rise alone in free men, which will fulfill the meaning of the word American. And with them will come centuries of further greatness to our country.Collection: Spiritual
Menaced by collectivist trends, we must seek revival of our strength in the spiritual foundations which are the bedrock of our republic. Democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of every human life. On the religious side, its highest embodiment is the Bible; on the political side, the Constitution.Collection: Spiritual
Our fathers and grandfathers who poured over the Midwest were self-reliant, rugged, God-fearing people of indomitable courage...They asked only for freedom of opportunity and equal chance. In these conceptions lies the real basis of American democracy. They and their fathers give a genius to American institutions that distinguished our people from any other in the world.Collection: Lying
Fishing is a constant reminder of the democracy of life, of humility, and of human frailty. The forces of nature discriminate for no man.Collection: Humility
In its broad aspects, the proper feeding of children revolves around a public recognition of the interdependence of the human animal upon his cattle. The white race cannot survive without dairy products.Collection: Children
Presidents have only two moments of personal seclusion. One is prayer; the other fishing - and they cannot pray all the time!Collection: Prayer
The recognition of Russia on November 16, 1933, started forces which were to have considerable influence in the attempt to collectivize the United States.Collection: Russia
Fishing is the chance to wash one's soul with pure air. It brings meekness and inspiration, reduces our egoism, soothes our troubles and shames our wickedness. It is discipline in the equality of men--for all men are equal before fish.Collection: Inspiration
Even if security from the cradle to the grave could eliminate [all] the risks of life, it would [still] be a dead hand on the creative spirit of the American people.Collection: Hands
The joys of fishing are not confined to the hours near the water.Collection: Fishing
Three qualities of greatness stood out in Woodrow Wilson. He was a man of staunch morals. He was more than just an idealist; he was the personification of the heritage of idealism of the American people. He brought spiritual concepts to the peace table. He was a born crusader.Collection: Spiritual
I can at once refute the statement that the people of the West object to conservation of oil resources. They know that there is a limit to oil supplies and that the time will come when they and the Nation will need this oil much more than it is needed now. There are no half measures in conservation of oil.Collection: Oil
The Union has become not merely a physical union of states, but rather a spiritual union in common ideals of our people. Within it is room for every variety of opinion, every possible experiment in social progress. Out of such variety comes growth, but only if we preserve and maintain our spiritual solidarity.Collection: Spiritual
Once the day's work starts there is little chance to walk, to ride or to take part in a game. Taking walks or rides early in the morning is a lonesome business, and the inevitable Secret Service guard when the president leaves the White House grounds is not enlivening company.Collection: Morning
I protest that we fans are being emotionally starved and frustrated by long periods of perfect performance of these batteries. More over, when there are nothing but strikes and balls going on, you relapse into your worries over the Bank of England, or something else.Collection: Baseball
I, with other Americans, have perhaps unduly resented the stream of criticism of American life... more particularly have I resented the sneers at Main Street. For I have known that in the cottages that lay behind the street rested the strength of our national character.Collection: Character
My boyhood ambition was to be able to earn my own living, without the help of anybody, anywhere.Collection: Ambition
More than ten million women march to work every morning side by side with the men. Steadily the importance of women is gaining notonly in the routine tasks of industry but in executive responsibility. I include also the woman who stays at home as the guardian of the welfare of the family. She is a partner in the job and wages. Women constitute a part of our industrial achievement.Collection: Morning
Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of "Emergency". It was a tactic of Lenin, Hitler and Mussolini.... The invasion of New Deal Collectivism was introduced by this same Trojan horse.Collection: Horse
I suppose I could have called in the whole of the Army, but what was the use? All I had to do was call in Main Street itself.Collection: Army
Liberalism should be found not striving to spread bureaucracy but striving to set bounds to it. True liberalism seeks all legitimate freedom first in the confident belief that without such freedom the pursuit of all other blessings and benefits is vain. That belief is the foundation of all American progress, political as well as economic.Collection: Blessing
We have not yet reached the goal but.. we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation.Collection: Sight
It was the transcendent fortitude and steadfastness of these men who in adversity and in suffering through the darkest hour of our history held faithful to an ideal. Here men endured that a nation might live.Collection: Memorial Day
The sixth grade made my life successful by preparing me for the seventh and the seventh by preparing me for the eighth and so on. May it do the same for you.Collection: Successful
American business needs a lifting purpose greater than the struggle of materialism.Collection: Business
Bless the children, for the national debt is theirs.Collection: Children
Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.Collection: Freedom
The fundamental business of the country, that is production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.Collection: Country
Whatever doubt there may be as to the quality or purpose of our free speech we certainly have ample volumes in production.Collection: Government
But I would emphasize again that social and economic solutions, as such, will not avail to satisfy the aspirations of the people unless they conform with the traditions of our race, deeply grooved in their sentiments through a century and a half of struggle for ideals of life that are rooted in religion and fed from purely spiritual springs.Collection: Spiritual
The advancement of knowledge must be translated into increasing health and education for the children.Collection: Children
The whole inspiration of our civilization springs from the teachings of Christ and the lessons of the prophets. To read the Bible for these fundamentals is a necessity of American life.Collection: Religious
The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists; they're too damn greedy.Collection: Conservative
Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as in knowing what to do next.Collection: Inspirational
We are in danger of developing a cult of the Common Man, which means a cult of mediocrity.Collection: Mean
You cannot extend the mastery of government over the daily life of a people without somewhere making it master of people's souls and thoughts.... Every step in that direction poisons the very roots of liberalism. It poisons political equality, free speech, free press, and equality of opportunity. It is the road not to more liberty but to less liberty.Collection: Opportunity
A boy has two jobs. One is just being a boy. The other is growing up to be a man.Collection: Jobs
Honest difference of views and honest debate are not disunity. They are the vital process of policy among free men.Collection: Men
It is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer's high privilege.Collection: Jobs
Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of EMERGENCY.Collection: Horse
We cannot change ideas in the minds of men and races with machine guns or battle ships.Collection: War
Along this road of spending, the government either takes over, which is Socialism, or dictates institutional and economic life, which is Fascism.Collection: Government
Please find me a one-armed economist so we will not always hear, "On the other hand..."Collection: Hands
Unless the U.N. is completely reorganized without the Communist nations in it, we should get out of it.Collection: Communist
We have gold because we cannot trust governmentsCollection: Government
No public man can be just a little crooked. There is no such thing as a no-man's land between honesty and dishonesty.Collection: Honesty
Love what is ahead by loving what has come before.Collection: Love