The best system of education is that which draws its chief support from the voluntary effort of the community, from the individual efforts of citizens, and from those burdens of taxation which they voluntarily impose upon themselves.

If wrinkles must be written on our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.

Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no idea behind it, is simply a brutality.

Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption. If it be intelligent, brave, and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature. . . . If the next centennial does not find us a great nation . . . it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.

Battles are never the end of war; for the dead must be buried and the cost of the conflict must be paid.

Territory is but the body of a nation. The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life.

The President is the last person in the world to know what the people really want and think.