• “The distinguishing feature of our American governmental system is the freedom of the individual; it is quite as important to prevent
    his being oppressed by many men as it is to save
    him from the tyranny of one.”

    – Thomas H. Benton, 1887

    April 24, 2012

  • “Such a body as the Secret Service … is by far the most efficient
    instrument possible to use against crime. Of course
    the more efficient an instrument is, the more
    dangerous it is if misused.”

    – Message to House of Representatives, January 4, 1909

    April 17, 2012

  • “Our country has been populated by pioneers, and therefore it has more energy, more enterprise, more expansive power
    than any other in the wide world.”

    – St. Paul, Minnesota, September 2, 1901

    April 10, 2012

  • “If you have an ideal only good while you sit at home, an ideal that nobody can live up to in outside life, examine it
    closely, and then cast it away.”

    – Groton Massachusetts, May 24, 1904

    April 3, 2012

  • “An independent and upright judiciary which fearlessly stands for the right, even against popular clamor, but which also understands
    and sympathizes with popular needs, is a great
    asset of popular government.”

    – Columbus, Ohio, February 21, 1912

    March 27, 2012

  • “We must keep ever in mind that no action of the government, no action by combination among ourselves, can take the place of
    the individual qualities to which in the long run every man
    must owe the success he can make of life.”

    – Providence, Rhode Island, August 23, 1902

    March 20, 2012

  • “Conservation means development as much as it does protection.”

    – Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910

    March 13, 2012

  • “The demagogue, in all his forms, is as characteristic an evil of a
    free society as the courtier is of a despotism.”

    – Forum, February 1895

    March 6, 2012

  • “I believe in making it possible for every man or woman who really desires it to have a higher education, but that this
    shall be permissive and not obligatory.”

    – Baltimore, Maryland, September 28, 1918

    February 28, 2012

  • “It is a great comfort to me to read the life and letters of Abraham Lincoln. I am more and more impressed every day, not only with the man’s wonderful power and sagacity, but with his literally endless patience, and at the same time his unflinching resolution.”

    – Letter to Kermit Roosevelt, October 2, 1903

    February 21, 2012

  • “Public welfare depends upon general public prosperity, and the reformer whose reforms interfere with the general
    prosperity will accomplish little.”

    – The Outlook, November 18, 1914

    February 14, 2012

  • “The vital thing for this nation to do is steadily to cultivate the quality which Washington and those under him so pre-eminently showed during the winter at Valley Forge – the quality of steady adherence to duty in the teeth of difficulty, in the teeth of discouragement, and even disaster, the quality that makes a man do what is straight and decent, not one day when a great crisis comes, but every day, day in
    and day out, until success comes at the end.”

    – at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, June 19, 1904

    February 7, 2012