James A. Garfield

I love to deal with doctrines and events. The contests of men about men I greatly dislike.

Few men in our history have ever obtained the Presidency by planning to obtain it.

A law is not a law without coercion behind it.

All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.

The President is the last person in the world to know what the people really want and think.

I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.

There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States.

The sin of slavery is one of which it may be said that without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.

Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.

The chief duty of government is to keep the peace and stand out of the sunshine of the people.

Justice and goodwill will outlast passion.

If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.

The ideal college is Mark Hopkins on one end of a log and a student on the other.

The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated by law.

Territory is but the body of a nation. The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life.

Right reason is stronger than force.

I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.

Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.

I am a poor hater.