The quote database

princes ought to leave affairs of reproach to the management of others, and keep those of grace in their own hands

who did not delay for any formal vote to empower him to do so, but followed him because he was born to command

He who is wise tries to harmonise the wishes that seek for self-gratification with the wish for the social good, and only thus can he realise his higher self.

We cannot expect to make everyone our friend, but we can try to make no one our enemy.

Let us measure what we will do for others by what they will do for themselves.

Presidential powers are not fixed but fluctuate, depending upon their disjunction or conjunction with those of Congress.

With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law, and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations.

he should strive to be always mindful of the fact that he serves his party best who serves the country best

They meant that public officers should owe their whole service to the Government and to the people.

It is during our most challenging and uncertain moments that our Nation's commitment to due process is most severely tested; and it is in those times that we must preserve our commitment at home to the principles for which we fight abroad.

our responsibility is heavy, to ourselves, to the world as it is to-day, and to the generations yet unborn

Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us.

I advance with obedience to the work, ready to retire from it whenever you become sensible how much better choice it is in your power to make

If parties in a republic are necessary to secure a degree of vigilance sufficient to keep the public functionaries within the bounds of law and duty, at that point their usefulness ends.

Never with my consent shall an officer of the people, compensated for his services out of their pockets, become the pliant instrument of Executive will.

If we would promise we must put ourselves in a position to perform our promise.

We shall enter into any war with a full consciousness of the awful consequences that it always entails, whether successful or not, and we, of course, shall make every effort consistent with national honor and the highest national interest to avoid a resort to arms.

War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed; peace is preferable to war in almost every contingency.

There are some national questions in the solution of which patriotism should exclude partisanship.

Honesty, capacity, and industry are nowhere more indispensable than in public employment.

The first duty of law is to keep sound the society it serves.

Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life without weakening or sentimentalizing it.

Surely it is hardly fitting that the ruler should be baser than the ruled.

The Executive has authority to recommend (not to dictate) measures to Congress.

I view it as an extreme measure, to be resorted to only in extraordinary cases, as where it may become necessary to defend the executive against the encroachments of the legislative power or to prevent hasty and inconsiderate or unconstitutional legislation.