Democracy, the practice of self-government, is a covenant among free men to respect the rights and liberties of their fellows.

As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.

Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.

Self-help and self-control are the essence of the American tradition.

No man can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it. There can be no appeasement with ruthlessness. There can be no reasoning with an incendiary bomb.

It seems to me that the dedication of a library is an act of faith. To bring together the resources of the past and to house them in buildings where they will be preserved for the use of men and women in the future, a nation must believe in three things. It must believe in the past. it must believe in the future. It must, above all, believe in the capacity of its own people so to learn from the past that they can gain in judgment in creating their own future.

Government cannot close its eyes to the pollution of waters, to the erosion of soil, to the slashing of forests any more than it can close its eyes to the need for slum clearance and schools.