All quotes

It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.

Liberty itself will find in such a government, with powers properly distributed and adjusted, its surest guardian.

Observe good faith and justice towards all nations. Cultivate peace and harmony with all.

The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established government.

I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our Government but civilization itself.

Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men.

The law, whether human or divine, is no respecter of persons; but the law is a respecter of reality.

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.

Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust.

Our mission is not punishment, but the rectification of wrong.

Under our scheme of government the waste of public money is a crime against the citizen, and the contempt of our people for economy and frugality in their personal affairs deplorably saps the strength and sturdiness of our national character.

The Constitution expresses more than the conviction of the people that democratic processes must be preserved at all costs.

My master had power and law on his side; I had a determined will.

Reader, it is not to awaken sympathy for myself that I am telling you truthfully what I suffered in slavery.

The war of my life had begun; and though one of God's most powerless creatures, I resolved never to be conquered.

depriving individuals of the right to choose for themselves how to conduct their intimate relationships poses a far greater threat to the values most deeply rooted in our Nation's history than tolerance of nonconformity could ever do

I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures

The test of all beliefs is their practical effect in life.

The optimist cannot fall back, cannot falter; for he knows his neighbor will be hindered by his failure to keep in line.

If citizens do not like a law, their duty as honest men and women is to discourage its violation; their right is openly to work for its repeal.

The animosities of elections should have no place in our Government, for government must concern itself alone with the common weal.

The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law.

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.

The press was to serve the governed, not the governors.