Woodrow Wilson
The soul of me is very selfish. I have gone my way after a fashion that made me the center of the plan. And you who are so individual, who are so independent a spirit, whose soul is also a kingdom, have been so loyal, so forgiving, so self-sacrificing in your willingness to live my life. Nothing but love cold have accomplished so wonderful a thing.Collection: Fashion
I have received delegations of working men who, apparently speaking with the utmost sincerity, have declared that they would regard it as a genuine hardship if they were deprived of their beer, for example.Collection: Beer
A powerful Navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of defense; and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never of aggression or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of Navy to build? We shall take leave to be strong upon the seas, in the future as in the past; and there will be no thought of offense or provocation in that. Our ships are our natural bulwarks.Collection: Strong
The commands of democracy are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities are wide and generous. Its compulsion is upon us.Collection: Responsibility
I am not one of those who have the least anxiety about the triumph of the principles I have stood for. I have seen fools resist Providence before, and I have seen their destruction, as will come upon these again, utter destruction and contempt. That we shall prevail is as sure as that God reigns.Collection: Anxiety
We never found a real model (for our vision).Collection: Real
The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates.Collection: Education
By 'radical,' I understand one who goes too far; by 'conservative,' one who does not go far enough; by 'reactionary,' one who won't go at all.Collection: Political
"Genius is divine perseverance." Divine patience I believe he originally used, perseverance is better in my opinion. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have.Collection: Perseverance
Neutrality is a negative word. It is a word that does not express what America ought to feel. America has a heart, and that heart throbs with all sorts of intense sympathies... We are not trying to keep out of trouble; we are trying to preserve the foundations upon which peace can be rebuilt.Collection: Peace
We ought to regard ourselves and to act as socialists--believers in the wholesomeness and beneficence of the body politic.Collection: Government
If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if an hour, I am ready now.Collection: Communication
Conservatism is the policy of make no change and consult your grandmother when in doubt.Collection: Grandmother
A presidential campaign may easily degenerate into a mere personal contest, and so lose its real dignity. There is no indispensable man.Collection: Real
When the representatives of "Big Business" think of the people, they do not include themselves.Collection: Thinking
What is at the heart of all national problems? It is that we have seen the hand of material interest sometimes about to close upon our dearest rights and possessions.Collection: Heart
A nation is as great, and only as great, as her rank and file.Collection: Files
Government is not a warfare of interests.Collection: Government
Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.Collection: Inspirational
One cool judgement is worth a thousand hasty councils.Collection: Success
When I think of the flag.... I see alternate strips of parchment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice, and stripes of blood to vindicate those rights, and then, in the corner, a prediction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim which stands for these great things.Collection: Thinking
Every great man of business has got somewhere a touch of the idealist in him.Collection: Business
I believe in Democracy because it releases the energies of every human being.Collection: Military
The things that the flag stands for were created by the experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history.Collection: Patriotic
May it not suffice for me to say ... that of course like every other man of intelligence and education I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should be raised.Collection: Believe
There is no indispensable man. The government will not collapse and go to pieces if any one of the gentlemen who are seeking to be entrusted with its guidance should be left at home.Collection: Home
Your real statesman is first of all, and chief of all, a great human being, with an eye for all the great fields on which men likehimself struggle, with unflagging, pathetic hope, toward better things.... He is a guide, a counselor, a mentor, a servant, a friend of mankind.Collection: Leadership
Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at.Collection: Presidential
America is the only idealistic nation in the world.Collection: America
Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government, and at the same time do for it too little. . . . We must strive for normalcy to reach stability.Collection: Government
The interesting and inspiring thing about America is that she asks nothing for herself except what she has a right to ask for humanity itself.Collection: America
Every one at the bottom of his heart cherishes vanity; even the toad thinks himself good-looking,--"rather tawny perhaps, but look at his eye!Collection: Heart
Statesmen have to bend to the collective will of their peoples or be broken.Collection: Broken
I do not want to live under a philanthropy. I do not want to be taken care of by the government.... We do not want a benevolent government. We want a free and a just government.Collection: Taken
Surely a man has come to himself only when he has found the best that is in him, and has satisfied his heart with the highest achievement he is fit for.Collection: Heart
And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you - bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave behind in them.Collection: Country
... so far as religion is concerned, argument is adjourned.Collection: Argument
We are provincials no longer. The tragic events of the 30 months of vital turmoil through which we have just passed have made us citizens of the world. There can be no turning back.Collection: Months
The growth of our nation and all its activities are in the hands of a few men.Collection: Men
It is a protest against the way the world has worked. (explanation of Bolshevism)Collection: World
The way to be patriotic in America is not only to love America, but to love the duty that lies nearest to our hand, and to know that in performing it we are serving our country.Collection: Country
Great statesmen seem to direct and rule by a sort of power to put themselves in the place of the nation over which they are set, and may thus be said to possess the souls of poets at the same time they display the coarser sense and the more vulgar sagacity of practical men of business.Collection: Men
It recognizes no morality but a sham morality meant for deceit, no honor even among thieves and of a thievish sort, no force but physical force, no intellectual power but cunning, no disgrace but failure, no crime but stupidity.Collection: Stupidity
There are times when words seem empty and only actions seem great. Such a time has come, and in the Providence of God America will once more have an opportunity to show the world that she was born to save mankind.Collection: Opportunity
I have rather a strange objection to talking from the back platform of a train.... It changes too often. It moves around and shifts its ground too often. I like a platform that stays put.Collection: Moving
The only place in the world that nothing has to be explained to me is the South.Collection: Southern
The natural man inevitably rebels against mathematics, a mild form of torture that could only be learned by painful processes of drill.Collection: Men
The spirit of [William] Penn will not be stayed. You cannot set limits to such knightly adventurers. After their own day is gone their spirits stalk the world, carrying inspiration everywhere that they go and reminding men of the lineage, the fine lineage, of those who have sought justice and right.Collection: Inspiration
Be militant! Be an organization that is going to do things! If you can find older men who will give you countenance and acceptableleadership, follow them; but if you cannot, organize separately and dispense with them. There are only two sorts of men to be associated with when something is to be done: Those are young men and men who never grow old.Collection: Men