“Don’t be content with mere effervescent denunciation of one thing or another. Evil can’t be done away with through one spasm of virtue.”

Address to the City Club of New York
May 9, 1899

“Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time, and if a country lets the time for wise action pass, it may bitterly repent when a generation later it strives under disheartening difficulties to do what could have been done so easily if attempted at the right moment.”

Letter to Edward Grey
November 15, 1913

“It is a good thing to read the Declaration of Independence every Fourth of July; it is a good thing to talk of what Washington and his fellows did for us; but what counts most is how we live up to the lessons that we read or that we speak of.”

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
November 5, 1902

“No man is fit for control who does not possess intelligence, self-respect, and respect for the just rights of others.”

The Foes of Our Own Household
1917

“Not only should there be complete liberty in matters of religion and opinion, but complete liberty for each man to lead his life as he desires, provided only that in so he does not wrong his neighbor.”

Paris, France
April 23, 1910

“Power always brings with it responsibility. You cannot have power to work well without having so much power as to be able to work ill, if you turn yourselves that way.”

Milwaukee, Wisconsin
September 7, 1910

“On this day, the 30th of May, we call to mind the deaths of those who died that the nation might live, who wagered all that life holds dear for the great prize of death in battle, who poured out their blood like water in order that the mighty national structure raised by the fair-seeing genius of Washington, Franklin, Marshall, Hamilton and the other great leaders of the Revolution, great framers of the Constitution, should not crumble into meaningless ruins.”

Arlington, VA
May 30, 1902

“We can as little afford to tolerate a dishonest man in the public service as a coward in the army.”

Washington, DC
October 15, 1903