Woodrow Wilson
What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind.
He is not a true man of the world who knows only the present fashions of it.
My own ideals for the university are those of a genuine democracy and serious scholarship. These two, indeed, seem to go together.
We have not given science too big a place in our education, but we have made a perilous mistake in giving it too great a preponderance in method in every other branch of study.
If you think too much about being re-elected, it is very difficult to be worth re-electing.
The question of armaments, whether on land or sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical question connected with the future fortunes of nations and of mankind.
America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses.
Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.
I am not sure that it is of the first importance that you should be happy. Many an unhappy man has been of deep service to himself and to the world.
Generally young men are regarded as radicals. This is a popular misconception. The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates. The radicals are the men past middle life.
Property as compared with humanity, as compared with the red blood in the American people, must take second place, not first place.
The awakening of the people of China to the possibilities under free government is the most significant, if not the most momentous, event of our generation.
When I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing.
The world is not looking for servants, there are plenty of these, but for masters, men who form their purposes and then carry them out, let the consequences be what they may.
I have come slowly into possession of such powers as I have. I receive the opinions of my day. I do not conceive them. But I receive them into a vivid mind.
I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world - no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.Collection: Country
If you lose your wealth, you have lost nothing; if you lose your health, you have lost something; but if you lose your character, you have lost everything.Collection: Character
Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.Collection: Fear
The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.Collection: Strong
We are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.Collection: Presidential
We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the world.Collection: Nwo
We are not put into this world to sit still and know; we are put into it to act.Collection: World
...I do not want a government that will take care of me, I want a government that will make other men take their hands off me so I can take care of myself.Collection: War
I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.Collection: Encouraging
The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make.Collection: Selfish
America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness, which are derived from Holy Scripture. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I ask of every man and woman in this audience that, from this night on, they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in their daily perusal of this great Book of revelations. (The Bible) That if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits free and pure by the baptism of Holy Scripture.Collection: Christian
Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.Collection: Power
A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.Collection: Yesterday
My urgent advice to you would be, not only always to think first of America, but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can be welded together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellowmen. He has lost touch with the ideal of America. For America was created to unit mankind.Collection: Sorry
To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is to make a permanent conquest.Collection: Conquer The World
I am sorry for men who do not read the Bible every day. I wonder why they deprive themselves of the strength and pleasure.Collection: Bible
Liberty does not consist in mere declarations of the rights of man. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action.Collection: Men
I am a most unhappy man. I accidentally ruined my country. A great industrial nation is now controlled by its system of credit. Our government is no longer based on the freedom of opinion, nor on the conviction and the majority decision, it is now a government which is subjected to the conviction and the compulsion of a small group of dominant men.Collection: Country
Conformity will be the only virtue and any man who refuses to conform will have to pay the penalty.Collection: Men
All things come to him who waits - provided he knows what he is waiting for.Collection: Patience
We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class, of necessity, in every society, to forego the privileges of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.Collection: Class
What is the use of voting? We know that the machines of both parties are subsidized by the same persons, and therefore it is useless to turn in either direction.Collection: Party
We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world.Collection: Inspirational
It was necessary to put the South at a moral disadvantage by transforming the contest from a war waged against states fighting for their indepdence into a war waged against states fighting for the maintenance and extension of slavery...and the world, it might be hoped, would see it as a moral war, not a political; and the sympathy of nations would begin to run for the North, not for the South.Collection: Running
The fewer the desires, the more peace.Collection: Desire
There is something better, if possible, that a man can give than his life. That is his living spirit to a service that is not easy, to resist counsels that are hard to resist, to stand against purposes that are difficult to stand against.Collection: Men
...We are intensely proud of their noble record and are glad to have had the whole world see how irresistible they are in their might when a cause which America holds dear is at stake. The whole nation has reason to be proud of them.Collection: Marine
Progressiveness means not standing still when everything else is moving.Collection: Moving
Power consists in one's capacity to link his will with the purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of cooperation.Collection: Inspirational
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.Collection: Inspirational
Life does not consist in thinking, it consists in acting.Collection: Thinking
You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errandCollection: Spiritual Vision
Responsibility is proportionate to opportunity.Collection: Responsibility
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.Collection: Love