Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness.

The trouble with the theory [of limited and divided government] is that government is not a machine, but a living thing. This is where the living and breathing constitution comes from. It is modified by its environment, necessitated by its tasks, shaped to its functions by the sheer pressure of life.

You must act in your friends' interests whether it pleases them or not; the object of love is to serve, not to win.

The awakening of the people of China to the possibilities under free government is the most significant, if not the most momentous, event of our generation.

I had rather be defeated in a cause that will ultimately triumph than triumph in a cause that will ultimately be defeated.

At last a vision has been vouchsafed to us of our life as a whole. We see the bad with the good.... With this vision we approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify and humanize every process of our common life, without weakening or sentimentalizing it.

Self-determination is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril.