Americanism is a question of principle, of idealism, of character. It is not a matter of birthplace, or creed, or line of descent.

The effort to make financial or political profit out of the destruction of character can only result in public calamity. Gross and reckless assaults on character, whether on the stump or in newspaper, magazine, or book, create a morbid and vicious public sentiment, and at the same time act as a profound deterrent to able men of normal sensitiveness and tend to prevent them from entering the public service at any price.

Get action. Seize the moment. Man was never intended to become an oyster.

I am an American; free born and free bred, where I acknowledge no man as my superior, except for his own worth, or as my inferior, except for his own demerit.

We shall make mistakes; and if we let these mistakes frighten us from our work we shall show ourselves weaklings.

It may be true that he travels farthest who travels alone, but the goal thus reached is not worth reaching.

The lunatic fringe in all reform movements.