James A. Garfield

Statistical science is indispensable to modern statesmanship. In legislation as in physical science it is beginning to be understood that we can control terrestrial forces only by obeying their laws. The legislator must formulate in his statutes not only the national will, but also those great laws of social life revealed by statistics.

I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.

Justice and goodwill will outlast passion.

Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.

If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.

Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.

I never meet a ragged boy in the street without feeling that i may owe him a salute, for I know not what possibilities may be buttoned up under his coat.

A brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil.

The President is the last person in the world to know what the people really want and think.

Great ideas travel slowly, and for a time noiselessly, as the gods whose feet were shod with wool.

He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation.

If there is one thing upon this earth that mankind love and admire better than another, it is a brave man, - it is the man who dares to look the devil in the face and tell him he is a devil.

For love of country, they accepted death.

The divorce between Church and State ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no Church property anywhere, in any state or in the nation, should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a tax upon the whole community.

Most human organizations that fall short of their goals do so not because of stupidity or faulty doctrines, but because of internal decay and rigidification.

History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy.

The people are responsible for the character of their Congress.

Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.

Liberty is no negation. It is a substantive, tangible reality.

Right reason is stronger than force.

There are men and women who make the world better just by being the kind of people they are. They have the gift of kindness or courage or loyalty or integrity. It really matters very little whether they are behind the wheel of a truck or running a business or bringing up a family. The teach the truth by living it.