Great Throughts Treasury

"Public officers are the trustees of the people."

"Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote."

"Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours."

"Sometimes I wake at night in the White House and rub my eyes and wonder if it is not all a dream."

"Sometimes people wouldn't bother calling me back. They'd think it was a prank. My dad's side of the family -- big Democrats."

"The best results in the operation of a government wherein every citizen has a share largely depend upon a proper limitation of purely partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen."

"The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. This has been repeatedly and quite lately demonstrated. Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character, while it prevents the indulgence among our people of that kindly sentiment and conduct which strengthens the bonds of a common brotherhood."

"The laboring classes constitute the main part of our population. They should be protected in their efforts peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by aggregated capital, and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care of the State for honest toil, and be framed with a view of improving the condition of the workingman."

"The laws and the entire scheme of our civil rule, from the town meeting to the State capitals and the national capital, is yours. Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust. Nor is this all. Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity and usefulness. Thus is the people's will impressed upon the whole framework of our civil polity — municipal, State, and Federal; and this is the price of our liberty and the inspiration of our faith in the Republic."

"The lesson should be constantly enforced that though the people support the Government, Government should not support the people."

"The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while people should patriotically and cheerfully support their Government its functions do not include the support of the people"

"The ship of democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board."

"The truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in natural toil."

"The trusts and combinations—the communism of pelf—whose machinations have prevented us from reaching the success we deserved, should not be forgotten nor forgiven."

"The United States is not a nation to which peace is a necessity."

"There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people's safety and great"

"There surely is no difference in his duties and obligations, whether a person is intrusted with the money of one man or many. And yet it sometimes appears as though the office-holder assumes that a different rule of fidelity prevails between him and the taxpayers"

"These are days of special perplexity and depression, and the path of public duty is unusually rugged."

"This vigilance on the part of the citizen, and an active interest and participation in political concerns, are the safeguards of his rights; but sluggish indifference to political privileges invites the machinations of those who wait to betray the people's trust."

"Today the United States is practically sovereign on this continent, and its fiat is law upon the subjects to which it confines its interposition."

"Unswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth, and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement and surely lead the way to usefulness and high achievement."

"We are not here today to bow before the representation of a fierce warlike god, filled with wrath and vengeance, but we joyously contemplate instead our own deity keeping watch and ward before the open gates of America and greater than all that have been celebrated in ancient song. Instead of grasping in her hand thunderbolts of terror and of death, she holds aloft the light which illumines the way to man's enfranchisement. We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home, nor shall her chosen altar be neglected. Willing votaries will constantly keep alive its fires and these shall gleam upon the shores of our sister Republic thence, and joined with answering rays a stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and man's oppression, until Liberty enlightens the world."

"We do not believe that the American people will knowingly elect to the Presidency a coarse debauchee who would bring his harlots with him to Washington, and hire lodgings for them convenient to the White House."

"We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home, nor shall her chosen altar be neglected."

"What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?"

"Whatever you do, tell the truth."

"When more of the people's sustenance is exacted through the form of taxation than is necessary to meet the just obligations of government and expenses of its economical administration, such exaction becomes ruthless extortion and a violation of the fundamental principles of free government."

"When with true American enthusiasm we recall the story of our war for independence and rejoice in the indomitable courage and fortitude of our revolutionary heroes, we should not fail to remember how well the Jews of America performed their part in the struggle."

"Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust."