James A. Garfield Quotes
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It has been said that unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. It should be said with the utmost emphasis that this question of the suffrage will never give repose or safety to the States or to the nation until each, within its own jurisdiction, makes and keeps the ballot free and pure by the strong sanctions of the law.
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Gentlemen of the Convention, your present temper may not mark the healthful pulse of our people. When your enthusiasm has passed, when the emotions of this hour have subsided, we shall find below the storm and passion that calm level of public opinion from which the thoughts of a mighty people are to be measured, and by which final action will be determined.
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Things don't turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.
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Right reason is stronger than force.
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He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation.
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We do not even inquire whether a black man is a rebel in arms, or not, if he is black, be he friend or foe, he is thought best kept at a distance. It is hardly possible God will let us succeed while such enormities are practiced.
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The divorce between the church and the state ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no church property anywhere in any State or in the nation should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a church tax upon the whole community.
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Strangulatus pro republica.
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If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.
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Under this Constitution the boundaries of freedom have been enlarged, the foundations of order and peace have been strengthened, and the growth of our people in all the better elements of national life has indicated the wisdom of the founders and given new hope to their descendants.
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Territory is but the body of a nation. The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life.
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I affirm, therefore, that our present position is one of apostasy; and to give the ballot to the negro will be no innovation, but a return to the old paths, a restoration of that spirit of liberty to which the sufferings and sacrifices of the Revolution gave birth.
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I am glad to have the opportunity of standing up against a rabble of men who hasten to make weathercocks of themselves.
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All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.
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Few men in our history have ever obtained the Presidency by planning to obtain it.
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Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
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Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.
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I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.
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The civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated by law.
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A brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil.
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The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.
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I am receiving what I suppose to be the usual number of threatening letters on the subject. Assassination can be no more guarded against than death by lightning; it is best not to worry about either.
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I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.
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It is a sad place, young man, for you to put your young life into. It is to me far more like a graveyard than like a camp for the living. Look at it! It is billowed all over with the graves of dead issues, of buried opinions, of exploded theories, of disgraced doctrines.