If you would be a leader of men, you must lead your own generation, not the next.

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

Property as compared with humanity, as compared with the red blood in the American people, must take second place, not first place.

America is not a mere body of traders; it is a body of free men. Our greatness is built upon our freedom - is moral, not material. We have a great ardor for gain; but we have a deep passion for the rights of man.

...men are not put into this world to go the path of ease, they are put into this world to go the path of pain and struggle.

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.

The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history.