The quote database

Our attempts to banish this importunate duty will only make it return upon us again and again, and every time in a shape more unpleasant than the former.

A grave responsibility confronts this Court whenever in course of litigation it must reconcile the conflicting claims of liberty and authority.

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

It is neither to do everything yourself nor to appoint a number of people to each duty, but to ensure that each does that duty to which he is appointed.

Government is competent when all who compose it work as trustees for the whole people.

In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms

Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit.

An Administration would be unworthy of confidence at home or respect abroad should it cease to be influenced by the conviction that no apparent advantage can be purchased at a price so dear as that of national wrong or dishonor.

Hence a sound and comprehensive policy should embrace not less the distant future than the urgent present.

In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first.

The principal object of management should be to secure the maximum prosperity for the employer, coupled with the maximum prosperity for each employee.

It would be neither fitting nor efficacious for this Government to undertake to draw up unilaterally a program designed to place Europe on its feet economically. This is the business of the Europeans.

Great nations like great men must keep their word.

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

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

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

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

I have not sought this enormous responsibility, but I will not shirk it.

I have learned already in this office that the difficult decisions always come to this desk.

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

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

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

Our diplomacy should be direct and frank, neither seeking to obtain more nor accepting less than is our due.

Next in importance to the maintenance of the Constitution and the Union is the duty of preserving the Government free from the taint or even the suspicion of corruption.