James A. Garfield Quotes
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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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Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.
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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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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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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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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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The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.
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All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.
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I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.
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He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation.
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I believe in God, and I trust myself in His hands.
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Right reason is stronger than force.
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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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But liberty is no negation. It is a substantive, tangible reality. It is the realization of those imperishable truths of the Declaration 'that all men are created equal', that the sanction of all just government is 'the consent of the governed'. Can these truths be realized until each man has a right be to heard on all matters relating to himself?
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I must do something to keep my thoughts fresh and growing. I dread nothing so much as falling into a rut and feeling myself becoming a fossil.
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Mister Speaker, I am not able to understand the mental organization of the man who can consider this bill, and the subject of which it treats, as free from very great difficulties. He must be a man of very moderate abilities, whose ignorance is bliss, or a man of transcendent genius, whom no difficulties can daunt and whose clear vision no cloud can obscure.
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To his chief of staff, David G. Swaim Oh Swaim, there is a pain here. Swaim, can't you stop this? Oh, oh, Swaim!
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I love to deal with doctrines and events. The contests of men about men I greatly dislike.
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A law is not a law without coercion behind it.
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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 civil service can never be placed on a satisfactory basis until it is regulated by law.
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There can be no permanent disfranchised peasantry in the United States.
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I thank you doctor, but I am a dead man.
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Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.