Woodrow Wilson Quotes (144 Quotes)

Neutrality is a negative word. It does not express what America ought to feel. We are not trying to keep out of trouble; we are trying to preserve the foundations on which peace may be rebuilt.

Armed neutrality.

Never murder a man when he's busy committing suicide

There's not an idea in our heads that has not been worn shiny by someone else's brains.

We shall fight for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

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.

The nation's honor is dearer than the nation's comfort yes, than the nation's life itself.

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

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

America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses.

He is not a true man of the world who knows only the present fashions of it.

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

Fear God and you need not be afraid of anyone else.

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

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

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

The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it. When we resist ... concentration of power we are resisting the powers of death, because concentration of power is what always precedes the destruction of human liberties.

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.

Some people have a large circle of friends while others have only friends that they like.

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

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.

What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion of mankind.

I not only use all the brains I have, but all I can borrow.

You must act in your friends interest whether it pleases him or not the object of love is to serve, not to win.

If you think too much about being re-elected, it is very difficult to be worth re-electing.

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

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

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.

If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation if fifteen minutes, three days if half an hour, two days if an hour, I am ready now.

Golf is a game in which one endeavors to control a ball with implements ill adapted for the purpose.

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

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.

All the extraordinary men I have known were extraordinary in their own estimation.

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.

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

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 method of political science is the interpretation of life; its instrument is insight, a nice understanding of subtle, unformulated conditions.

There is a price which is too great to pay for peace, and that price can be put in one word. One cannot pay the price of self-respect.

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 awakening of the people of China to the possibilities under free government is the most significant, if not the most momentous, event of our generation.

The Constitution of the United States is not a mere lawyers' document it is a vehicle of life, and its spirit is always the spirit of the age

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

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

If a dog will not come to you after he has looked you in the face, you ought to go home and examine your conscience.

Interest does not tie nations together; it sometimes separates them. But sympathy and understanding does unite 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.

When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness and your own duty.

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.

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

Just what is it that America stands for If she stands for one thing more than another it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people