"The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

"The American people abhor a vacuum."

"For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison."

"I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head."

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

"Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time."

"Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive."

"There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else."

"Don't hit at all if it is honorably possible to avoid hitting; but never hit soft."

"The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

"The American people abhor a vacuum."

"For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison."

"I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head."

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorius triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

"Nine-tenths of wisdom consists in being wise in time."

"Order without liberty and liberty without order are equally destructive."

"There can be no fifty-fifty Americanism in this country. There is room here for only 100% Americanism, only for those who are Americans and nothing else."

"With self-discipline most anything is possible."

"Believe you can and you're halfway there."

"We can have no "50-50" allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."

"I don't pity any man who does hard work worth doing. I admire him. I pity the creature who does not work, at whichever end of the social scale he may regard himself as being."

"Character, in the long run, is the decisive factor in the life of an individual and of nations alike."

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public."

"We are face to face with our destiny and we must meet it with a high and resolute courage. For us is the life of action, of strenuous performance of duty; let us live in the harness, striving mightily; let us rather run the risk of wearing out than rusting out."

"It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort."

"Rhetoric is a poor substitute for action, and we have trusted only to rhetoric. If we are really to be a great nation, we must not merely talk; we must act big."

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

"Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones."

"The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people."

"Nine-tenths of wisdom is being wise in time."

\

"Old age is like everything else. To make a success of it, you've got to start young."

Every man is equally entitled to protection by law. But when the laws undertake to add... artificial distinctions, to grant titles, gratuities, and exclusive privileges—to make the rich richer and the potent more powerful— the humble members of society—the farmers, mechanics, and laborers, who have neither the time nor the means of securing like favors to themselves, have a right to complain of the injustice of their government.

You are a den of vipers and thieves. I intend to rout you out, and by the eternal God, I will rout you out.

Freemasonry is an ancient and respectable institution, embracing individuals of every nation, of every religion, and of every condition in life. Wealth, power and talents are not necessary to the person of a Freemason. An unblemished character and a virtuous conduct are the only qualifications for admission into the Order.

There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.

I hope and trust to meet you in Heaven, both white and black-both white and black.

The Supreme Court has made its decision, now let them enforce it.

You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessings.

This spirit of mob-law is becoming as great an evil as a servile war.

John Calhoun, if you secede from my nation I will secede your head from the rest of your body.

You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.

I am now eased in my finances and replenished in my wardrobe.

Without union our independence and liberty would never have been achieved; without union they can never be maintained. Divided into twenty-four, or even a smaller number, of separate communities, we shall see our internal trade burdened with numberless restraints and exactions; communications between distant points and sections obstructed or cut off; our sons made soldiers to deluge with blood the fields they now till in peace...The loss of liberty, of all good government, of peace, plenty, and happiness, must inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union.

After eight years as President I have only two regrets: that I have not shot Henry Clay or hanged John C. Calhoun.

Live within your means, never be in debt, and by husbanding your money you can always lay it out well.

That those tribes [the Sac and Fox Indians] cannot exist surrounded by our settlements and in continual contact with our citizensis certain. They have neither the intelligence, the industry, the moral habits, nor the desire of improvement which are essential to any favorable change in their condition.

Heaven will be heaven only if my wife is there.

Do they think that I am such a damned fool as to think myself fit for President of the United States? No, sir; I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way, but I am not fit to be President.