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Quotes by President

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."

"Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men."

"America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America."

"As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending."

"People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time."

"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."

"I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office."

"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."

"Our pleasures were simple - they included survival."

"Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future."

"All that seems indispensible in stating the account between the dead and the living, is to see that the debts against the latter do not exceed the advances made by the former."

"I should not regret a fair and full trial of the entire abolition of capital punishment."

"It is better to be alone than in bad company."

"Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace."

"I have only one yardstick by which I test every major problem - and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?"

"You cannot, in human experience, rush into the light. You have to go through the twilight into the broadening day before the noon comes and the full sun is upon the landscape."

"America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration."

"Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell."

"On receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided on my illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully and so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous task with equal ability and success."

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

"It's not that I don't have opinions, rather that I'm paid not to think aloud."

"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism."

"We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges."

"An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame - Southern Methodist University game and doesn't care who wins."

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."
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