Not all change is progress.
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.
Such a mind we must desire to see in a woman, – a mind that stirs without irritating you, that arouses but does not belabour, amuses and yet subtly instructs.
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.
Some of the greatest and most lasting effects of genuine oratory have gone forth from secluded lecture desks into the hearts of quiet groups of students.
We have beaten the living, but we cannot fight the dead.
Bagehot did what so many thousand of young graduates before him had done, – he studied for the bar; and then, having prepared himself to practise law, followed another large body of young men in deciding to abandon it.
An evident principleis the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong or weak.
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.
Where the great force lies, there must be the sanction of peace.
The world can be at peace only if the world is stable, and there can be no stability where the will is in rebellion, where there is not tranquility of spirit and a sense of justice, of freedom, and of right.
The light that shined upon the summit now seems almost to shine at our feet.
Americanism consists in utterly believing in the principles of America.
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.