I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.

You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand

No task, rightly done, is truly private. It is part of the world s work.

If the colored people made a mistake in voting for me, they ought to correct it.

I am sorry for those that disagree with me because I know that they are wrong.

To conquer with arms is to make only a temporary conquest; to conquer the world by earning its esteem is to make a permanent conquest.

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.