If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig.
We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the things that unite.
The rule for every man is, not to depend on the education which other men have prepared for him-not even to consent to it; but to strive to see things as they are, and to be himself as he is. Defeat lies in self-surrender.
There is no cause half so sacred as the cause of the people. There is no idea so uplifting as the idea of the service of humanity.
Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end, and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.
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.
But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts.
War isn’t declared in the name of God; it is a human affair entirely.
Only peace between equals can last.
Some people have a large circle of friends while others have only friends that they like.
Freedom exists only where the people take care of the government.
The flag is a flag of liberty of opinion as well as of political liberty.
One cannot pay the price of self-respect.
The use of a university is to make young gentlemen as unlike their fathers as possible.
It is not men that interest or disturb me primarily; it is ideas. Ideas live; men die.
The princes among us are those who forget themselves and serve others.
No people are true Christians who do not think constantly of how they can lift their brother and sister, how they can assist their friends, how they can enlighten mankind, how they can make virtue the rule of conduct in the circle in which they live.
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.
The highest and best form of efficiency is the spontaneous cooperation of a free people.
Uncompromising thought is the luxury of the closeted recluse. Untrammeled reasoning is the indulgence of the philosopher, of the dreamer of sweet dreams.