James A. Garfield Quotes - Page 2

Of course I deprecate war, but if it is brought to my door the bringer will find me at home.

History is philosophy teaching by example, and also warning; its two eyes are geography and chronology.

It is not right or manly to lie even about Satan.

Whoever controls the volume of money in any country is absolute master of all industry and commerce.

Honesty is the best policy, says the familiar axiom; but people who are honest on that principle defraud no one but themselves.

It is not part of the functions of the national government to find employment for people - and if we were to appropriate a hundred millions for this purpose, we should be taxing forty millions of people to keep a few thousand employed.

Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders of political parties, and real ones cannot be evaded by political parties. The real political issues of the day declare themselves, and come out of the depths of that deep which we call public opinion.

Most human organizations that fall short of their goals do so not because of stupidity or faulty doctrines, but because of internal decay and rigidification.

The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.

I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that i may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat.

Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no idea behind it, is simply a brutality.

No man can make a speech alone. It is the great human power that strikes up from a thousand minds that acts upon him, and makes the speech.

The sin of slavery is one of which it may be said that without the shedding of blood there is no remission.

The possession of great powers no doubt carries with it a comtempt for mere external show

The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves.

The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some work relating to others.

A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.

I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.

The return to solid values is always hard... Distress, panic, and hard times have marked our pathway in returning to solid values.

Nobody but radicals have ever accomplished anything in a great crisis.

It is the high privilege and sacred duty of those now living to educate their successors and fit them, by intelligence and virtue, for the inheritance which awaits them.

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.

I mean to make myself a man, and if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else.

In the minds of most men, the kingdom of opinion is divided into three territories,--the territory of yes, the territory of no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of doubt.

I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.