Every man who takes office in Washington either grows or swells, and when I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing. The mischief of it is that when they swell, they do not swell enough to burst.

Hunger does not breed reform; it breeds madness and all the distemper's that make an ordered life impossible.

Politics is a war of causes; a joust of principles. Government is too serious a matter to admit of meaningless courtesies.

It would be the irony of fate if my administration had to deal chiefly with foreign affairs.

And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you - bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what you intended to leave behind in them.

No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all- disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report.

I am not sure that it is of the first importance that you should be happy. Many an unhappy man has been of deep service to himself and to the world.