If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if an hour, I am ready now.

Let him [the President] once win the admiration and confidence of the country, and no other single force can withstand him, no combination of forces will easily overpower him.... If he rightly interpret the national thought and boldly insist upon it, he is irresistible; and the country never feels the zest of action so much as when the President is of such insight and caliber.

The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.

Never attempt to murder a man who is committing suicide.

If you lose your wealth, you have lost nothing; if you lose your health, you have lost something; but if you lose your character, you have lost everything.

It is like writing history with lightning and my only regret is that it is all so terribly true.

There are blessed intervals when I forget by one means or another that I am President of the United States.