Let us further make it evident that we use no words which we are not prepared to back up with deeds, and that while our speech is always moderate, we are ready and willing to make it good.

The men who founded these communities showed practically by their life-work that it is indeed the spirit of adventure which is the maker of commonwealths.

But we may be certain of one thing: whether we wish it or not, we can not avoid hereafter having duties to do in the face of other nations.

Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say.

Such an attitude will be the surest possible guarantee of that self-respecting peace, the attainment of which is and must ever be the prime aim of a self-governing people.

In certain communities the existence of a thoroughly efficient department of factory inspection is just as essential as the establishment of a fire department.

There are excellent people who believe that we can shirk these duties and yet retain our self-respect; but these good people are in error.

The man who works, the man who does great deeds, in the end dies as surely as the veriest idler who cumbers the earth’s surface; but he leaves behind him the great fact that he has done his work well.

But our country, as it strides forward with ever-increasing rapidity to a foremost place among the world powers, must necessarily find, more and more, that it has world duties also.

If the strong man has not in him the lift toward lofty things his strength makes him only a curse to himself and to his neighbor.

We admit with all sincerity that our first duty is within our own household; that we must not merely talk, but act, in favor of cleanliness and decency and righteousness, in all political, social, and civic matters.

All that can be said is that it is highly undesirable, on the one hand, to weaken individual initiative, and, on the other hand, that in a constantly increasing number of cases we shall find it necessary in the future to shackle cunning as…

The vast individual and corporate fortunes, the vast combinations of capital, which have marked the development of our industrial system, create new conditions and necessitate a change from the old attitude of the State and the nation…

Woe to all of us if ever as a people we grow to condone evil because it is successful.

It is probably true that the large majority of the fortunes that now exist in this country have been amassed not by injuring our people, but as an incident to the conferring of great benefits upon the community; and this, no matter what…

No prosperity and no glory can save a nation that is rotten at heart.

No one of us can do everything, but each of us can do something, and if we work together the aggregate of these somethings will be very considerable.

Law must be based upon justice, else it can not stand, and it must be enforced with resolute firmness, because weakness in enforcing it means in the end that there is no justice and no law, nothing but the rule of disorderly and…

We must retain our self-respect, each and all of us, and we must beware alike of mushy sentimentality and of envy and hatred.

The power of the forces of evil has been greatly increased, and it is necessary for our self-preservation that we should similarly strengthen the forces for good.

It is eminently desirable that we should none of us be hard-hearted, but it is no less desirable that we should not be soft-headed.

I really do not know which quality is most productive of evil to mankind in the long run, hardness of heart or softness of head.

We must ever keep the core of our national being sound, and see to it that not only our citizens in private life, but, above all, our statesmen in public life, practice the old, commonplace virtues which from time immemorial have lain at…

We do not intend to permit the people’s money to be squandered or to tolerate any work that is not the best.

In short, he must work, and work not only for himself, but for others.