Woodrow Quotes & Sayings

Princeton is no longer a thing for Princeton men to please themselves with. Princeton is a thing with which Princeton men must satisfy the country. — Woodrow Wilson

Not all change is progress. — Woodrow Wilson

Movies are like writing history with lightning. — Woodrow Wilson

I have no happy fairyland vision that she can win. — Woodrow Wilson

An attitude can murder just as easily as an ax. — Woodrow M. Kroll

At every crisis in one's life, it is absolute salvation to have some sympathetic friend to whom you can think aloud without restraint or misgiving. — Woodrow Wilson

So far as the colleges go, the sideshows are swallowing up the circus. — Woodrow Wilson

There is one thing that the American people always rise to and extend their hand to and that is the truth of justice, and of liberty, and of peace. We have accepted that truth and we are going to led by itand through us the world, out into pastures of quietness and peace such as the world never dreamed of before. — Woodrow Wilson

Sciencehas won for us a great liberty in the physical world, a liberty from superstitious fear and from disease, a freedom touse nature as a familiar servant; but it has not freed us from ourselves. — Woodrow Wilson

If you will think about what you ought to do for other people, your character will take care of itself. Character is a by-product, and any man who devotes himself to its cultivation in his own case will become a selfish prig. — Woodrow Wilson

Glory in Christ and you can bask in His light forever. — Woodrow M. Kroll

I had rather have everybody on my side than be armed to the teeth. — Woodrow Wilson

Self-determination is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril. — Woodrow Wilson

A powerful Navy we have always regarded as our proper and natural means of defense; and it has always been of defense that we have thought, never of aggression or of conquest. But who shall tell us now what sort of Navy to build? We shall take leave to be strong upon the seas, in the future as in the past; and there will be no thought of offense or provocation in that. Our ships are our natural bulwarks. — Woodrow Wilson

Quite honestly, most people are quick to "write someone off." But our God is a God of the second chance. Learn from One who is patient with you, and you'll learn to be patient with others. — Woodrow M. Kroll

From the dim morning hours of history when the father was king and priest down to this modern time of history's high noon when nations stand forth full grown and self-governed, the law of coherence and continuity in political development has suffered no serious breach. — Woodrow Wilson

Could it be that we don't want to think badly of Woodrow Wilson? We seem to feel that a person like Helen Keller can be an inspiration only so long as she remains uncontroversial, one-dimensional. We don't want complicated icons. "People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions," Helen Keller pointed out. "Conclusions are not always pleasant."41 Most of us automatically shy away from conflict, and understandably so. We particularly seek to avoid conflict in the classroom. — James W. Loewen

Woodrow Wilson says that if you want to make enemies, try to change something! Well, I think there is an easier way to make enemies: Tell the truths! — Mehmet Murat Ildan

The man swimming against the stream knows the strenth of it. — Woodrow Wilson

In 1919, at the Paris Peace Conference, Japan had put forward a proposal to guarantee racial equality at the League of Nations, but Woodrow Wilson overturned it in the face of majority support. — Pankaj Mishra

Liberty cannot live apart from constitutional — Woodrow Wilson

I kind of liked the idea of a universe that always was and always will be. — Robert Woodrow Wilson

There are hundreds of books about Woodrow Wilson, but I have an image of him in my mind that is unlike any picture I have seen anywhere else, based on material at Princeton and 35 years of researching and thinking about him. — A. Scott Berg

No government has ever been beneficent when the attitude of government was that it was taking care of the people. The only freedom consists in the people taking care of the government. — Woodrow Wilson

That is Gladstone, the greatest statesman that ever lived. I intend to be a statesman, too. — Woodrow Wilson

Provision for others is a fundamental responsibility of human life. — Woodrow Wilson

We are in the presence of a new organization of society. Our life has broken away from the past. — Woodrow Wilson

I read my first book on Woodrow Wilson at age 15, and I was hooked. — A. Scott Berg

Remember that God ordained that I should be the next president of the United States. Neither you nor any other mortal or mortals could have prevented this. — Woodrow Wilson

We can have no sympathy with those who seek the power of government to advance their own personal interests or ambitions. — Woodrow Wilson

The welfare, the happiness, the energy and spirit of the men and women who do the daily workis the underlying necessity of all prosperity ... There can be nothing wholesome unless their life is wholesome; there can be no contentment unless they are contented. — Woodrow Wilson

After 'Lindbergh,' my publisher asked whom I wanted to write about next. I said, 'There's one idea I've been carrying in my hip pocket for 35 years. It's Woodrow Wilson.' — A. Scott Berg

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. — Woodrow Wilson

The historical Woodrow Wilson suffered from numerous complaints which we might today label as psychosomatic. Yet, Wilson did have a stroke as a relatively young man of 39 and seemed always to be ill. He was 'high-strung' - intensely neurotic - yet a charismatic personality nonetheless. — Joyce Carol Oates

I am so glad that I am young, so that I may give my youth to you. — Woodrow Wilson

Pray according to faith, not circumstances. — Woodrow M. Kroll

We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world. — Woodrow Wilson

The commands of democracy are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities are wide and generous. Its compulsion is upon us. — Woodrow Wilson

Government is not a warfare of interests. — Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson claimed that history endows us with the invaluable mental power we call judgment. — Sam Wineburg

We must believe the things We teach our children — Woodrow Wilson

I can predict with absolute certainty that within another generation there will be another world war if the nations of the world do not concert the method by which to prevent it. — Woodrow Wilson

Death, like the quintessence of otherness, is for others. — Woodrow Wilson

Don't settle for wishful thinking; make peace in your heart a reality. — Woodrow M. Kroll

You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. — Woodrow Wilson

Let me ... remind you that it is only by working with an energy which is almost superhuman and which looks to uninterested spectators like insanity that we can accomplish anything worth the achievement. Work is the keystone of a perfect life. Work and trust in God. — Woodrow Wilson

A nation which does not remember what it was yesterday, does not know what it is today, nor what it is trying to do. We are trying to do a futile thing if we do not know where we came from or what we have been about. — Woodrow Wilson

Three qualities of greatness stood out in Woodrow Wilson. He was a man of staunch morals. He was more than just an idealist; he was the personification of the heritage of idealism of the American people. He brought spiritual concepts to the peace table. He was a born crusader. — Herbert Hoover

If young gentlemen get from their years in college only manliness, esprit de corps, a release of their social gifts, a training ingive and take, a catholic taste in men and the standards of true sportsmen, they have gained much but they have not gained what a college should give them. It should give them insight into the things of the mind and the spiritthe consciousness of having taken on them the vows of true enlightenment and of having undergone the discipline, never to be shaken off, of those who seek wisdom in candor, with faithful labor and travail of spirit. — Woodrow Wilson

The allied nations with the fullest concurrence of our government and people are agreed that in Palestine shall be laid the foundations of a Jewish Commonwealth. — Woodrow Wilson

The No. 1 source in the State Department was Alger Hiss, who was then an assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State, Francis Sayre, the son-in-law of Woodrow Wilson. The No. 2 source in the same Department was Henry Julian Wadleigh, an expert in the Trade Agreements Division, to which he had managed to have himself transferred from the Agriculture Department. He had done so at the request of the Communist Party — Whittaker Chambers

The awakening of the people of China to the possibilities under free government is the most significant, if not the most momentous, event of our generation. — Woodrow Wilson

Property as compared with humanity, as compared with the red blood in the American people, must take second place, not first place. — Woodrow Wilson

If you think too much about being re-elected, it is very difficult to be worth re-electing. — Woodrow Wilson

I believe in Democracy because it releases the energies of every human being. — Woodrow Wilson

They lived long that have lived well. — Woodrow Wilson

Following graduation from Amherst, a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship enabled me to test the depth of my interest in literary scholarship by beginning graduate studies at Harvard University. — Harold E. Varmus

What you can't go through on your own, God will help you fly over. — Woodrow Kroll

Eighty years ago, Woodrow Wilson took America into the twentieth century with a challenge to make the world safe for democracy. As we enter the twenty-first century, our task is to make democracy safe for the world. — Fareed Zakaria

War is only a sort of dramatic representation, a sort of dramatic symbol of a thousand forms of duty. I fancy that it is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you. — Woodrow Wilson

The cure for bad politics is the same as the cure for tuberculosis. It is living in the open. — Woodrow Wilson

We have begun a fight that it may be will take many a generation to complete ... but you know that men are not put into this world to go the path of ease; they are put into this world to go the path of pain and struggle ... We have given our lives to the enterprise, and that is richer and the moral is greater. — Woodrow Wilson

The soul of me is very selfish. I have gone my way after a fashion that made me the center of the plan. And you who are so individual, who are so independent a spirit, whose soul is also a kingdom, have been so loyal, so forgiving, so self-sacrificing in your willingness to live my life. Nothing but love cold have accomplished so wonderful a thing. — Woodrow Wilson

Liberty does not consist in mere declarations of the rights of man. It consists in the translation of those declarations into definite action. — Woodrow Wilson

There is no indispensable man. — Woodrow Wilson

The spirit of [William] Penn will not be stayed. You cannot set limits to such knightly adventurers. After their own day is gone their spirits stalk the world, carrying inspiration everywhere that they go and reminding men of the lineage, the fine lineage, of those who have sought justice and right. — Woodrow Wilson

No student knows his subject: the most he knows is where and how to find out the things he does not know — Woodrow Wilson

A moment of prayerful reflection can prevent a lifetime of bitter regret. — Woodrow M. Kroll

When you come into the presence of a leader of men, you know you have come into the presence of fire; that it is best not incautiously to touch that man; that there is something that makes it dangerous to cross him. - WOODROW WILSON — Robert A. Caro

I will not speak with disrespect of the Republican Party. I always speak with respect of the past. — Woodrow Wilson

The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name ... We must be impartial in thought as well as in actiona nationthat neither sits in judgment upon others nor is disturbed in her own counsels and which keeps herself fit and free to do what is honest and disinterested and truly serviceable for the peace of the world. — Woodrow Wilson

I have found one can never get anything in life that is worth while without fighting for it. — Woodrow Wilson

There is something better, if possible, that a man can give than his life. That is his living spirit to a service that is not easy, to resist counsels that are hard to resist, to stand against purposes that are difficult to stand against. — Woodrow Wilson

The great war that broke so suddenly upon the world two years ago, and which has swept up within its flame so great a part of thecivilized world, has affected us very profoundly ... With its causes and its objects we are not concerned. The obscure fountains from which its stupendous flood has burst we are not interested to search for or explore. — Woodrow Wilson

Ultimately, all our complaints are directed against God. — Woodrow M. Kroll

There is no more subtle dissolvent of morals than sentimentality. — Woodrow Wilson

When you have read the Bible, you will know it is the word of God, because you will have found it the key to your own heart, your own happiness and your own duty. — Woodrow Wilson

I want the people to love me, but I suppose they never will. — Woodrow Wilson

This is a damn useless conversation. Goodbye. (Charles Goodnight to Woodrow Call) — Larry McMurtry

Justice, and only justice, shall always be our motto. — Woodrow Wilson

It is easier to move a cemetery than to change a curriculum. — Woodrow Wilson

The greatest embarrassment of my political career has been that active duties seem to deprive me of time for careful investigation. I seem almost obliged to form conclusions from impressions instead of from study ... I wish that I had more knowledge, more thorough acquaintance, with the matters involved. — Woodrow Wilson

There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized peace. — Woodrow Wilson

When the representatives of "Big Business" think of the people, they do not include themselves. — Woodrow Wilson

Opinion is the great, indeed the only coordinating force in our system. — Woodrow Wilson

The method of political science is the interpretation of life; its instrument is insight, a nice understanding of subtle, unformulated conditions. — Woodrow Wilson

The firm basis of government is justice, not pity. — Woodrow Wilson

Our civilization cannot survive materially unless it is redeemed spiritually. It can be saved only by becoming permeated with the Spirit of Christ, and being made free and happy by practices which spring out of that spirit. Only thus can discontent be driven out and all shadows lifted from the road ahead. — Woodrow Wilson

We wish companionship and renewal of spirit, enrichment of thought and the full adventure of the mind; and we desire fair company, and a larger world in which to find them. — Woodrow Wilson

But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts — Woodrow Wilson

He [John F. Kennedy] might have envisioned himself being "alone, at the top" but, like Woodrow Wilson, he would find out that not even a President moves free of human entanglement, human needs, human illusions; not even a President can be independent of those around him. — Tom Wicker

No country which has cricket as one of its national games has yet gone communist. — Woodrow Wyatt

I am the friend of peace and mean to preserve it for America so long as I am able ... No course of my choosing or of their (nations at war) will lead to war. War can come only by the wilful acts and aggressions of others. — Woodrow Wilson

If you wish your children to be Christians you must really take the trouble to be Christian yourselves. Those are the only terms upon which the home will work the gracious miracle. — Woodrow Wilson

The question of armaments, whether on land or sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical question connected with the future fortunes of nations and of mankind. — Woodrow Wilson

My high school career was undistinguished except for math and science. However, having barely been admitted to Rice University, I found that I enjoyed the courses and the elation of success and graduated with honors in physics. I did a senior thesis with C.F. Squire, building a regulator for a magnet for use in low-temperature physics. — Robert Woodrow Wilson

A nation is as great, and only as great, as her rank and file. — Woodrow Wilson

The American Revolution was a beginning, not a consummation. — Woodrow Wilson

Be militant! Be an organization that is going to do things! If you can find older men who will give you countenance and acceptableleadership, follow them; but if you cannot, organize separately and dispense with them. There are only two sorts of men to be associated with when something is to be done: Those are young men and men who never grow old. — Woodrow Wilson

As compared with the college politician, the real article seems like an amateur. — Woodrow Wilson