Woodrow Wilson Quotes on Man (25 Quotes)

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

I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by it's system of credit...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 of conviction and vote of the majority,but, a Government by opinion and the duress of a small group of dominant men.

A man is the part he plays among his fellows. He is not isolated he cannot be. His life is made up of the relations he bears to others is made or marred by those relations, guided by them, judged by them, expressed in them. There is nothing else upon which he can spend his spirit nothing else that we can see. It is by these he gets his spiritual growth it is by these we see his character revealed, his purpose, his gifts. A few (men) act as those who have mastered the secrets of a serious art, with deliberate subordination of themselves to the great end and motive of the play. These have 'found themselves,' and have all the ease of a perfect adjustment.

If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish pig.

In the last analysis, my fellow country men, as we in America would be the first to claim, a people are responsible for the acts of government.

America is not a mere body of traders it is a body of free men. Our greatness is built upon our freedom is moral, not material. We have a great ardor for gain but we have a deep passion for the rights of man.

America is the place where you cannot kill your government by killing the men who conduct it.

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

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

Never murder a man when he's busy committing suicide

No thoughtful man ever came to the end of his life, and had time and a little space of calm from which to look back upon it, who did not know and acknowledge that it was what he had done unselfishly and for others, and nothing else, that satisfied him in the retrospect, and made him feel that he had played the man.

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

There is no question what the roll of honor in America is. The roll of honor consists of the names of men who have squared their conduct by ideals of duty.

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 hope that their dreams will come true.

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.

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.

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

It is the object of learning, not only to satisfy the curiosity and perfect the spirits of ordinary men, but also to advance civilization.

Generally young men are regarded as radicals. This is a popular misconception. The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates. The radicals are the men past middle life.

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.

You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an American.

Never attempt to murder a man who is committing suicide.

A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.

It is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shouting at you.

Surely a man has come to himself only when he has found the best that is in him, and has satisfied his heart with the highest achievement he is fit for.