James A. Garfield Quotes

I would rather believe something and suffer for it, than to slide along into success without opinions.

Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders of political parties, and real ones cannot be evaded by political parties. The real political issues of the day declare themselves, and come out of the depths of that deep which we call public opinion.

Talleyrand once said to the first Napoleon that the United States is a giant without bones. Since that time our gristle has been rapidly hardening.

Swift defined observation to be an old man's memory.

We are apt to be deluded into false security by political catch-words, devised to flatter rather than instruct.

History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy.

The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community.

I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.

No man can make a speech alone. It is the great human power that strikes up from a thousand minds that acts upon him, and makes the speech.

In the minds of most men, the kingdom of opinion is divided into three territories,--the territory of yes, the territory of no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of doubt.

Coercion is the basis of every law in the universe,--human or divine. A law is not law without coercion behind it.