The business of America is business and the chief ideal of the American people is idealism.
The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten.
The business of the country is business.
The government of the United States is a device for maintaining in perpetuity the rights of the people, with the ultimate extinction of all privileged classes.
When people are bewildered they tend to become credulous.
I have found it advisable not to give too much heed to what people say when I am trying to accomplish something of consequence. Invariably they proclaim it can't be done. I deem that the very best time to make the effort.
All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectually without effort, and effort means work.
Heroism is not only in the man, but in the occasion.
No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave.
There is no force so democratic as the force of an ideal.
You can't know too much, but you can say too much.
I sometimes wish that people would put a little more emphasis on the observance of the law than they do upon its enforcement.
No one every listened themselves out of a job.
Patriotism is easy to understand in America; it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
What we need in appointive positions are men of knowledge and experience with sufficient character to resist temptations.
Civilization and profits go hand in hand.
Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good.
Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped.
Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.
Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.
No enterprise can exist for itself alone. It ministers to some great need, it performs some great service, not for itself, but for others; or failing therein, it ceases to be profitable and ceases to exist.
If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it.
Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong.
No man ever listened himself out of a job.
If you see 10 troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that 9 will run into the ditch before they reach you.
We do not need more intellectual power, we need more spiritual power. We do not need more of the things that are seen, we need more of the things that are unseen.
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers. It may not be difficult to store up in the mind a vast quantity of face within a comparatively short time, but the ability to form judgments requires the severe discipline of hard work and the tempering heat of experience and maturity.
I have never been hurt by what I have not said.
When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.
It is only when men begin to worship that they begin to grow.