Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big.

The Americans of other blood must remember that the man who in good faith and without reservations gives up another country for this must in return receive exactly the same rights, not merely legal, but social and spiritual, that other Americans proudly possess. We of the United States belong to a new and separate nationality. We are all Americans and nothing else, and each, without regard to his birthplace, creed, or national origin, is entitled to exactly the same rights as all other Americans.

I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding

Our flag is a proud flag, and it stands for liberty and civilization. Where it has once floated, there must be no return to tyranny.

Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past.

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

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.