The city of Washington is in some respects self-contained, and it is easy there to forget what the rest of the United States is thinking about. I count it a fortunate circumstance that almost all the windows of the White House and its offices open upon unoccupied spaces that stretch to the banks of the Potomacand that as I sit there I can constantly forget Washington and remember the United States.

If you think too much about being re-elected, it is very difficult to be worth re-electing.

An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of Democracy

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

Surely a man has come to himself only when he has found the best that is in him, and has satisfied his heart with the highest achievement he is fit for.

Life does not consist in thinking, it consists in acting.

May it not suffice for me to say ... that of course like every other man of intelligence and education I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should be raised.