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

America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses.

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.

No student knows his subject: the most he knows is where and how to find out the things he does not know

...it would be a mistake...to ascribe to Roman legal conceptions an undivided sway over the development of law and institutions during the Middle Ages... The Laws of Moses as well as the laws of Rome contributed suggestions and impulse to the men and institutions which were to prepare the modern world; and if we could have but eyes to see... we should readily discover how very much besides religion we owe to the Jew.

Only free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor steady to a common end, and prefer the interests of mankind to any narrow interest of their own.

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