Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.

The state is or can be master of money, but in a free society it is master of very little else.

Want is one only of five giants on the road of reconstruction; the others are Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, and Idleness.

The object of government in peace and in war is not the glory of rulers or of races, but the happiness of the common man.

Unemployment is like a headache or a high temperature - unpleasant and exhausting but not carrying in itself any explanation of its cause.

The trouble in modern democracy is that men do not approach to leadership until they have lost the desire to lead anyone.

Scratch a pessimist and you will often find a defender of privilege.

No one believes an hypothesis except its originator but everyone believes an experiment except the experimenter.

I have spent most of my life most happily making plans for others to carry out.

Let us proportion our alms to our ability, lest we provoke God to proportion His blessings to our alms.

The human mind likes a strange idea as little as the body likes a strange protein and resists it with a similar energy.

The truth is often one's best shield.

But when a cut is deep, it’s still just flesh beneath.

When you advise any person you should be guided by the fear of God.

The real gap is between doing nothing and doing something.

I would love to be able to write a tragedy in my imagination--it would turn into a masterpiece.

We decline the claim to power by parties which want to own their followers body and soul, and which want to put themselves over and above the whole nation.

A little health now and again is the ailing person's best remedy.

There is nothing worse for mortals than a wandering life.

Nothing destroys one's respect in the hearts of others more than greed.

The First Amendment serves not only the needs of the polity but also those of the human spirit - a spirit that demands self-expression .