The man who disparages music as a luxury and non-essential is doing the nation an injury. Music now, more than ever before, is a national need.

The greatest embarrassment of my political career has been that active duties seem to deprive me of time for careful investigation. I seem almost obliged to form conclusions from impressions instead of from study.... I wish that I had more knowledge, more thorough acquaintance, with the matters involved.

The Constitution was not made to fit us like a straitjacket. In its elasticity lies its chief greatness.

A fault which humbles a person is of more use to him or her than a good action which puffs him or her up.

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.

We must believe the things We teach our children

When men take up arms to set other men free, there is something sacred and holy in the warfare.