Woodrow Wilson

I have come slowly into possession of such powers as I have. I receive the opinions of my day. I do not conceive them. But I receive them into a vivid mind.

Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself.

There is little for the great part of the history of the world except the bitter tears of pity and the hot tears of wrath.

The world is not looking for servants, there are plenty of these, but for masters, men who form their purposes and then carry them out, let the consequences be what they may.

The question of armaments, whether on land or sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical question connected with the future fortunes of nations and of mankind.

When I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is swelling or growing.

Caution is the confidential agent of selfishness.

That a peasant may become king does not render the kingdom democratic.

Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.

Prosperity is necessarily the first theme of a political campaign.

My own ideals for the university are those of a genuine democracy and serious scholarship. These two, indeed, seem to go together.

I am not sure that it is of the first importance that you should be happy. Many an unhappy man has been of deep service to himself and to the world.

There are blessed intervals when I forget by one means or another that I am President of the United States.

The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is, not to frighten them, but to challenge them.

Every man who takes office in Washington either grows or swells, and when I give a man an office, I watch him carefully to see whether he is growing or swelling.

Tell me what is right and I will fight for it.

Property as compared with humanity, as compared with the red blood in the American people, must take second place, not first place.

At every crisis in one's life, it is absolute salvation to have some sympathetic friend to whom you can think aloud without restraint or misgiving.

There can be no equality or opportunity if men and women and children be not shielded in their lives from the consequences of great industrial and social processes which they cannot alter, control, or singly cope with.

As compared with the college politician, the real article seems like an amateur.