All quotes

If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.

It is better for those who have almost unlimited power of government in their hands to err on the side of freedom.

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;

It is as impossible in a book to teach a person in charge of sick how to manage, as it is to teach her how to nurse.

Let your doubt be to yourself, your decision to them.

If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for.

If I am a princess in rags and tatters, I can be a princess inside. It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in cloth of gold, but it is a great deal more of a triumph to be one all the time when no one knows it.

Whats'ever 'appens to you--whats'ever--you'd be a princess all the same--an' nothin' couldn't make you nothin' different.

You have summoned me in my weakness; you must sustain me by your strength.

One must subject oneself to one's own tests that one is destined for independence and command, and do so at the right time.

A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart, is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position.

it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected

Fully impressed with the gravity of the duties that confront me and mindful of my weakness, I should be appalled if it were my lot to bear unaided the responsibilities which await me.

Government has a right to survive and powers conferred upon it are not necessarily set at naught by the express prohibitions of the Bill of Rights.

One of the chief virtues of a democracy, however, is that its defects are always visible and under democratic processes can be pointed out and corrected.

I accept with humility the honor which the American people have conferred upon me.

In this time of doubt, they look to the United States as never before for good will, strength, and wise leadership.

Optimism that does not count the cost is like a house builded on sand.

But I have found out that though the ways in which I can make myself useful are few, yet the work open to me is endless.

Doubt and mistrust are the mere panic of timid imagination, which the steadfast heart will conquer, and the large mind transcend.

As I look back on my struggle to write that little story, it seems to me that I must have had a prophetic vision of the good that would come of the undertaking, or I should surely have failed.

At the beginning I was only a little mass of possibilities. It was my teacher who unfolded and developed them.

Courage returns as we gaze; when we see what has been, we doubt no more that it can be again.

Methinks, if I loved him more, I should keep him--I should keep myself rather--at a more respectful distance.

My saddest and most genuine sorrows are apt to be but transient regrets.