Woodrow Wilson famous quotes

...We are intensely proud of their noble record and are glad to have had the whole world see how irresistible they are in their might when a cause which America holds dear is at stake. The whole nation has reason to be proud of them.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Marine #America #Noble

If a dog will not come to you after having looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Inspiring #Dog #Silly

The world must be made safe for democracy.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Democracy #World #Safe

We are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Presidential #Tragedy #Citizens

America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of the Holy Scripture.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#America #Elements #Scripture

The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Leadership #Patriotic #Voice

The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Government #Hands #People

You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Poverty #Errands #World

Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Power #Government #Historical

I am sorry for men who do not read the Bible every day. I wonder why they deprive themselves of the strength and pleasure.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Bible #Sorry #Men

I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world - no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Country #Men #Hands

Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Perseverance #Genius #Brightness

The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Strength #Perseverance #Adversity

Big business is not dangerous because it is big, but because its bigness is an unwholesome inflation created by privileges and exemptions which it ought not to enjoy.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Business #Privilege #Bigs

The seed of revolution is repression.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Revolution #Revolutionary

We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Positive Thinking #Thinking #World

We want one class of persons to have a liberal education, and we want another class of persons, a very much larger class of necessity in every society, to forgo the privilege of a liberal education and fit themselves to perform specific difficult manual tasks.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Class #Tasks #Want

America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Patriotic #America

No man has ever risen to the stature of spiritual manhood until he has found that it is finer to serve somebody else than it is to serve himself.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Spiritual #Men #Giving

America was established not to create wealth but to realize a vision, to realize an ideal - to discover and maintain liberty among men.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#4th Of July #Men #America

Conservatism is the policy of make no change and consult your grandmother when in doubt.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Grandmother #Political #Doubt

You cannot, in human experience, rush into the light. You have to go through the twilight into the broadening day before the noon comes and the full sun is upon the landscape.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Twilight #Experience #Noon

I come from the South and I know what war is, for I have seen its terrible wreckage and ruin. It is easy for me as President to declare war. I do not have to fight, and neither do the gentlemen on the Hill who now clamor for it. It is some poor farmer's boy, or the son of some poor widow - who will have to do the fighting and dying.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#War #Son #Fighting

A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Yesterday #Trying #Today

I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Inspirational #Life #Motivational

There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Leadership #Sports #Spiritual

One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Inspirational #Patriotic #Light

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.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Children #Opportunity #Equality

Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Leadership #Doe #Compromise

Life does not consist in thinking, it consists in acting.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Thinking #Acting #Doe

No man can sit down and withhold his hands from the warfare against wrong and get peace from his acquiescence.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Patriotic #Men #Hands

The Americans who went to Europe to die are a unique breed.... (They) crossed the seas to a foreign land to fight for a cause which they did not pretend was peculiarly their own, which they knew was the cause of humanity and mankind. These Americans gave the greatest of all gifts, the gift of life and the gift of spirit.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Fighting #Unique #Europe

We should not only master questions, but also act upon them, and act definitely.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Should #Masters

The world must be made safe for democracy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested foundations of political liberty. We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for ourselves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we shall freely make.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Selfish #Sacrifice #Political

The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history...
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Rights #People #Independence

The sum of the whole matter is this - our civilization cannot survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Civilization #Survival #Matter

The history of liberty is a history of resistance.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Liberty #Resistance

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool, the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#4th Of July #Men #Safety

The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Strong #Giving Up #Men

The whole purpose of democracy is that we may hold counsel with one another, so as not to depend upon the understanding of one man.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Men #Understanding #Democracy

The things that the flag stands for were created by the experiences of a great people. Everything that it stands for was written by their lives. The flag is the embodiment, not of sentiment, but of history.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#People #Patriotism #Flags

All things come to him who waits - provided he knows what he is waiting for.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Patience #Waiting

The way to stop financial joyriding is to arrest the chauffeur, not the automobile.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Money #Way #Financial

I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Book #Men #Half

No man can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Men #Poverty #Worship

When I think of the flag.... I see alternate strips of parchment upon which are written the rights of liberty and justice, and stripes of blood to vindicate those rights, and then, in the corner, a prediction of the blue serene into which every nation may swim which stands for these great things.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Thinking #Rights #Blue

Some Americans need hyphens in their names, because only part of them has come over; but when the whole man has come over, heart and thought and all, the hyphen drops of its own weight out of his name.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Heart #Men #Names

We are not put into this world to sit still and know; we are put into it to act.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#World #This World #Stills

We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Together #Purpose #Ends

The truth is we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Heartless #Truth Is #Economic

Let me... remind you that it is only by working with an energy which is almost superhuman and which looks to uninterested spectators like insanity that we can accomplish anything worth the achievement. Work is the keystone of a perfect life. Work and trust in God.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Perfect #Discipline #Achievement

When correcting a child, the goal is to apply light, not heat.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Children #Light #Goal

Provision for others is a fundamental responsibility of human life.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Ignorance #Responsibility #Fundamentals

Fear God and you need not fear anyone else.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#God #Needs #Fear God

May it not suffice for me to say ... that of course like every other man of intelligence and education I do believe in organic evolution. It surprises me that at this late date such questions should be raised.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Believe #Men #Presidential

When men take up arms to set other men free, there is something sacred and holy in the warfare.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Men #Sacred #Warfare

One cool judgement is worth a thousand hasty councils.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Success #Judgement #Council

There is a power so organized, so subtle, so complete, and so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Speak #Conspiracy #Condemnation

Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Loyalty #Mean #Heart

Government ought to be all outside and no inside. . . . Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Believe #Mean #Government

No student knows his subject: the most he knows is where and how to find out the things he does not know
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Doe #Students #Subjects

I believe in Democracy because it releases the energies of every human being.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Military #Believe #Democracy

Is there any man, is there any woman, let me say any child here that does not know that the seed of war in the modern world is industrial and commercial rivalry?
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Children #War #Men

Let it be your pride to show all men everywhere not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Military #Pride #Men

A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Men #Hands #Growth

To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Country #Gratitude #Pride

Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Fear #Men #Views

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Friendship #Patience #Real Friends

A conservative is someone who makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Grandmother #Political #Doubt

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.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Adversity #Men #Bravery

A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Men #Thinking #Political

Absolute identity with one's cause is the first and great condition of successful leadership.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Inspirational #Leadership #Successful

I will not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with respect of the past.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Respect #Party #Past

I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Inspirational #Motivational #Patriotic

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.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Cancer #Patriotic #Thinking

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

#Work #Men #Office

You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Life #Motivational #Inspiring

If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Change #Clever #Christian Inspirational

If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Country #Men #Usa

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Love #Dream #Spring

Power consists in one's capacity to link his will with the purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of cooperation.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Teamwork #Power #Purpose

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Inspirational #Sports #Dream

We grow by our dreams.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Dream #Grows

The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#4th Of July #Revolution #American Revolution

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#4th Of July #Patriotic #America

Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Character #Great Men #Duty

We forget that there is much more patriotism in having the audacity to differ from the majority than in running before the crowd; we forget that in the resistance of the minority some of the biggest things in our own history have been accomplished, and the man who looks on the Stars and Stripes and doesn't hold a right to say nay to his neighbor, even if the neighbor is of the larger party, has forgotten the history of his country.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Running #Country #Stars

Every great man of business has got somewhere a touch of the idealist in him.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Business #Men #Idealist

Today's greatest labor-saving device is tomorrow.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Today #Saving #Tomorrow

Work is the keystone of a perfect life. Work and trust in God.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Work #Perfect #Trust In God

If Freud had worn a kilt in the prescribed Highland manner he might have had a very different attitude to genitals.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Attitude #Might #Different

Death comes along like a gas bill one can't payand that's all one can sayabout it.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Bills #Gas

Music says nothing to the reason: it is a kind of closely structured nonsense.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Kind #Nonsense #Reason

I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#War #Generations #World

I can imagine no greater disservice to the country than to establish a system of censorship that would deny to the people of a free republic like our own their indisputable right to criticize their own public officials. While exercising the great powers of the office I hold, I would regret in a crisis like the one through which we are now passing to lose the benefit of patriotic and intelligent criticism.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Country #Regret #Patriotic

A sure sign of an amateur is too much detail to compensate for too little life.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Too Much #Details #Littles

If you lose your wealth, you have lost nothing; if you lose your health, you have lost something; but if you lose your character, you have lost everything.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Character #Healthy #Wealth

Reality is what I see, not what you see.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Reality

The natural man inevitably rebels against mathematics, a mild form of torture that could only be learned by painful processes of drill.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Men #Rebel #Painful

...it would be a mistake...to ascribe to Roman legal conceptions an undivided sway over the development of law and institutions during the Middle Ages... The Laws of Moses as well as the laws of Rome contributed suggestions and impulse to the men and institutions which were to prepare the modern world; and if we could have but eyes to see... we should readily discover how very much besides religion we owe to the Jew.
-- Woodrow Wilson

#Mistake #Eye #Men