It is not an army that we must train for war; it is a nation.
The nation’s honor is dearer than the nation’s comfort.
The right is more precious than peace.
The roll of honor consists of the names of meant who have squared their conduct by ideals of duty.
Wilson was once asked how long it took him to write a speech. He answered, ‘That depends. If I am to speak 10 minutes, I need a week for preparation. If 15 minutes, 3 days. If half hour, two days. If an hour, I am ready now.’
They do not need our praise. They do not need that our admiration should sustain them. There is no immortality that is safer than theirs. We come not for their sakes but for our own, in order that we may drink at the same springs of inspiration from which they themselves drank.
There is such a thing as man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right.
Every country is renewed out of the unknown ranks and not out of the ranks of those already famous and powerful and in control.
Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness and all the distemper’s that make an ordered life impossible.
I have received delegations of working men who come, apparently speaking of the utmost sincerity, have declared that they would regard it as a genuine hardship to be deprived of their beer.
A man is not as big as his belief in himself; he is as big as the number of persons who believe in him.
A right is worth fighting for only when it can be put into operation.
No man can be just who is not free.
Only a peace between equals can last. Only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit.
Settlements may be temporary, but the action of the nations in the interest of peace and justice must be permanent. We can set up permanent processes. We may not be able to set up permanent decisions.
We can afford to exercise the self-restraint of a really great nation which realizes its own strength and scorns to misuse it.
America is the place where you cannot kill your government by killing the men who conduct it.
Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.
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.
When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness and your own duty.