I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

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

Some men can live up to their loftiest ideals without ever going higher than a basement.

It is only through labor and painful effort, by grim energy and resolute courage, that we move on to better things.

Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided but they are far better than certain kinds of peace.

If there is not the war, you don't get the great general if there is not a great occasion, you don't get a great statesman if Lincoln had lived in a time of peace, no one would have known his name.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

A typical vice of American politics is the avoidance of saying anything real on real issues.

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.