History will never accept difficulties as an excuse.

I ask that you offer to the political arena, and to the critical problems of our society which are decided therein, the benefit of the talents which society has helped to develop in you. I ask you to decide, as Goethe put it, whether you will be an anvilor a hammer. The question is whether you are to be a hammerwhether you are to give to the world in which you were reared and educated the broadest possible benefits of that education.

Man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

The basis of self-government and freedom requires the development of character and self-restraint and perseverance and the long view. And these are qualities which require many years of training and education.

Neither smiles nor frowns, neither good intentions nor harsh words, are a substitute for strength.

If men and women are in chains anywhere in the world, then freedom is endangered everywhere.

Irrational barriers and ancient prejudices fall quickly when the question of survival itself is at stake.