"And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I attribute the mentioned happiness of my past life to his divine providence, which led me to the means I used and gave the success."
"To relieve the misfortunes of our fellow creatures is concurring with Deity; it is godlike."
"Imitate Jesus or Socrates."
"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
George Washington
"The great Searcher of human hearts knows there is no wish in mine, beyond that of living and dying an honest man, on my own farm."
"I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the state over which you preside, in His holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow citizens of the United States at large, and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field, and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased to dispose us all, to do Justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that Charity, humility and pacific temper of mind, which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation."
Colin Powell
"I go back to the Declaration, because that's where we got it from: 'All men are created equal, and are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. We sometimes forget the phrase that comes after that: 'Governments are instituted among men to secure these rights."
"The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the 1st and 2nd Inaugural Addresses of Thomas Jefferson are my four favorite documents."
Thomas Jefferson
"The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time."
"Peace and friendship with all mankind is the wisest policy."
"I place economy among the first and most important of Republican virtues, and public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared."
"I have ever found in my progress through life, that acting for the public if we always do what is right, the approbation denied in the beginning will surely follow in the end."
"The duty of an upright administration is to pursue its course steadily, to know nothing of family dissensions and to cherish the good principles of both parties."
"I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just."
Abraham Lincoln
"I am not afraid to die, except for the fact that I have not done anything to make the world remember that I had once lived."
"As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."
"In regard to this Great Book (the Bible), I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book."
"Labor is prior to, and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." ~Lincoln's 1st Annual Message to Congress, Dec 3, 1861
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."
"I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has." ~Speech to One Hundred Sixty-Sixth Ohio Regiment, August 22, 1864
Teddy Roosevelt
"We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage."
"We need the iron qualities that go with true manhood. We need the positive virtues of resolution, of courage, of indomitable will, of power to do without shrinking from the rough work that must always be done."
"Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage."
"Unless a man is master of his soul, all other kinds of mastery amount to little."
"It is hard to fail, but it is worse to never have tried to succeed."
"Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground."
"In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing."
"It is true of the Nation, as of the individual, that the greatest doer must also be a great dreamer."
"The object of government is the welfare of the people."
"The bulk of government is not legislation but administration."
"Conservation means development as much as it does protection. I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land; but I do not recognize the right to waste them, or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."
"The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value."
"This country will not be a permanently good place for any of us to live unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
John Kennedy
"Let us not seek the republican answer or the democratic answer, but the right answer."
"No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings."
"If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live."
"We must never forget that art is not a form of propoganda, it is a form of truth."
"And so my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you- ask what you can do for your country."
Ronald Reagan
"Whatever else history may say about me when I am gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes not your worst fears, to your confidence rather than your doubts... and may all of you as Americans never forget your heroic origins, never fail to seek divine guidance, and never lose your natural, GOD given, optimism."
