“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
— Thomas Jefferson Primary source“I believe it to be an invariable rule that tyrants of genius are succeeded by scoundrels.”
— Albert Einstein Primary sourceBy noon it was clear that the Socialists would have a majority. At luncheon my wife said to me, “It may well be a blessing in disguise.” I replied, “At the moment it seems quite effectively disguised.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“Anytime we have new forms of communication it changes behavior whether it is political or business or any type of behavior.”
— Bill Gates Primary source“We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“For, in a democracy, every citizen, regardless of his interest in politics, ‘holds office’ every one of us is in a position of responsibility; and, in the final analysis, the kind of government we get depends upon how we fulfill those responsibilities. We, the people, are the boss, and we will get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Assume that the new elite were clearly and simply to proclaim its intentions which are to supplant the old elite; no one would come to its assistance, it would be defeated before having fought a battle. On the contrary, it appears to be asking nothing for itself, well knowing that without asking anything in advance it will obtain what it wants as a consequence of its victory.”
— Vilfredo Pareto Primary source“Senators, we hear, must be politicians—and politicians must be concerned only with winning votes, not with statesmanship or courage. Mothers may still want their favorite sons to grow up to be President, but according to a famous Gallup poll of some years ago, they do not want them to become politicians in the process.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“It is compromise that prevents each set of reformers from crushing the group on the extreme opposite end of the political spectrum.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Concentration is the secret of strength in politics, in war, in trade, in short, in all management of human affairs.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“And by virtue of the power, and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“If the government is cruel, the governor’s life is not safe.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“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.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, while the other believes it is wrong, and ought not to be extended.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.”
— Thomas Jefferson Primary source“The belief that security can be obtained by throwing a small State to the wolves is a fatal delusion.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“All of us in the Congress are made fully aware of the importance of party unity (what sins have been committed in that name!)”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“The statesmen miscalculated again. Their fellow-countrymen had the means to carry out their policy but not the will; their pawns had the will without the means.”
— Arnold J. Toynbee Primary source“Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Not all Senators would agree—but few would deny that the desire to be re-elected exercises a strong brake on independent courage.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Half the truth is often a great lie.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitution, the Union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Some of my colleagues who are criticized today for lack of forthright principles—or who are looked upon with scornful eyes as compromising ‘politicians’—are simply engaged in the fine art of conciliating, balancing and interpreting the forces and factions of public opinion, an art essential to keeping our nation united and enabling our Government to function.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“The true democracy, living and growing and inspiring, puts its faith in the people—faith that the people will not simply elect men who will represent their views ably and faithfully, but also elect men who will exercise their conscientious judgment—faith that the people will not condemn those whose devotion to principle leads them to unpopular courses, but will reward courage, respect honor and ultimately recognize right.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“History is moving pretty quickly these days, and the heroes and villains keep on changing parts.”
— Ian Fleming Primary source“The President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was formed in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“As long as I have any choice, I will only stay in a country where political liberty, tolerance, and equality of all citizens before the law prevail.”
— Albert Einstein Primary source“Any system of government will work when everything is going well. It’s the system that functions in the pinches that survives.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“It is part of the Communist doctrine and drill-book, laid down by Lenin himself, that Communists should aid all movements towards the Left and help into office weak Constitutional, Radical or Socialist Governments. These they should undermine, and from their falling hands snatch absolute power, and found the Marxist State.”
— Winston Churchill Primary source“The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“We stated before that men’s ideas change slowly and that a nation’s ideas change even more slowly. It takes shocks—hard shocks—to change a nation’s psychology.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“I therefore consider that in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Of our political revolution of ’76, we all are justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom, far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. In it the world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and expand into the universal liberty of mankind.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Plainly, the central idea of secession, is the essence of anarchy.”
— Abraham Lincoln Primary source“Perhaps if the American people more fully comprehended the terrible pressures which discourage acts of political courage, which drive a Senator to abandon or subdue his conscience, then they might be less critical of those who take the easier road—and more appreciative of those still able to follow the path of courage.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“A new-born government must dazzle.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“War is a lottery in which nations ought to risk nothing but small amounts.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte Disputed“But the rich man—not to make any invidious comparison—is always sold to the institution which makes him rich.”
— Henry David Thoreau Primary source“In praising Antony, I have dispraised Caesar.”
— Cleopatra DisputedAmerican Civil War Liberty Freedom America War