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.

All the extraordinary men I have known were extraordinary in their own estimation.

I have always been among those who believed that the greatest freedom of speech was the greatest safety, because if a man is a fool the best thing to do is to encourage him to advertise the fact by speaking.

We are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.

Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions.

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

Surely a man has come to himself only when he has found the best that is in him, and has satisfied his heart with the highest achievement he is fit for.

Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.

America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses.

The interesting and inspiring thing about America is that she asks nothing for herself except what she has a right to ask for humanity itself.