The quote database

There is but one just use of power, and it is to serve people.

A President is neither prince nor pope, and I don't seek a window on men's souls.

Great nations like great men must keep their word.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

America has never been united by blood or birth or soil.

Civility is not a tactic or a sentiment. It is the determined choice of trust over cynicism, of community over chaos.

We must show courage in a time of blessing by confronting problems instead of passing them on to future generations.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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.

Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on and on, or someone must write the end to it.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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