It is out of the question to claim a right and yet shirk the responsibility for exercising that right.

The Monroe Doctrine is not a part of international law.

I do not want to see any foreign power take possession permanently or temporarily of the customs houses of an American republic in order to enforce its obligations.

It is a great pleasure to me to be back here again.

I have a great contempt for the brawler, and not merely contempt but the most active dislike for the man who bullies whomsoever is weaker, who wrongs the less fortunate.

Under no circumstances will the United States use the Monroe Doctrine as a cloak for territorial aggression.

No stable and growing American republic wishes to see some great non-American military power acquire territory in its neighborhood.

We must not try to go too fast, under penalty of finding that we may be going in the wrong direction; and, in any event, we ought always to proceed by evolution and not by revolution.

Fossilization, of course, means death, whether to an individual, a government, or a doctrine.

We need in the interest of peace and so that we can do our duty in promoting peace of the world to have it understood that we desire peace not from fear, not from weakness, but because we regard peace as just and right.

It is a proud and responsible privilege to be citizens of this great self-governing nation; and each of us needs to keep steadily before his eyes the fact that he is wholly unfit to take part in the work of governing others unless he can…

Whether this country goes up or goes down will depend in the last analysis upon the character of the average American, and I believe that this country will go up because I believe that in the future the average character of our average…

In addition to that, you have got to do your duty by the State and by your neighbor.

In war the ultimate factor is the man behind the gun.

The only effective way to help anybody is to help him help himself.

Something can be done by wise legislation and by wise and honest administration of the laws; that is, something can be done by our action taken in our collective capacity through the State and the nation.

The way to be a good citizen is to be a good man or woman in your own home; to do your duty by those closest to you, by those immediately dependent upon you.

The shot that counts is the shot that hits.