Politicians aren't any more wicked than other citizens but the situation in which they are placed warps their judgment.

If you tell me that there are obstacles in the way of your ambition that make it impossible to pursue, then I know it's not a real ambition. There are always obstacles. The 'perversity of events,' as someone once called it, is always ready to lick us. Events are never right for achieving what we most want to achieve. If this were not so, there would be no real fun in being 17 -- or even in being alive.

You can't prove you're an American by waving Old Glory.

There is no danger is letting people have their say. ... There is a danger when you try to stop them from saying it.

Character isn't inherited.

Character isn't inherited. One builds it daily by how one thinks and acts.

I realized that public affairs were also my affairs.