Quotes to inspire and reflect

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

It isn't sufficient just to want - you've got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.

There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money. It lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.

The true conservative is the man who has a real concern for injustices and takes thought against the day of reckoning.

We defend and we build a way of life, not for America alone, but for all mankind.

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.

We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization.

We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.

If you treat people right they will treat you right - ninety percent of the time.

The constant free flow of communication amount us-enabling the free interchange of ideas-forms the very bloodstream of our nation. It keeps the mind and body of our democracy eternally vital, eternally young.

Be sincere; be brief; be seated.

As Americans, we go forward, in the service of our country, by the will of God.

Ambition is pitiless. Any merit that it cannot use it finds despicable.

I think I lived those years very impersonally. It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the president's wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

Hate and force cannot be in just a part of the world without having an effect on the rest of it.

In all our contacts it is probably the sense of being really needed and wanted which gives us the greatest satisfaction and creates the most lasting bond.

Old age has deformities enough of its own. It should never add to them the deformity of vice.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.

Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.

Campaign behavior for wives: Always be on time. Do as little talking as humanly possible. Lean back in the parade car so everybody can see the president.

I used to tell my husband that, if he could make me 'understand' something, it would be clear to all the other people in the country.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.

Friendship with one’s self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are not willing to do yourself.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

The only advantage of not being too good a housekeeper is that your guests are so pleased to feel how very much better they are.

The battle for the individual rights of women is one of long standing and none of us should countenance anything which undermines it.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall.

I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him.

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

There are practical little things in housekeeping which no man really understands.

Anyone who thinks must think of the next war as they would of suicide. We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.

You can never really live anyone else's life, not even your child's. The influence you exert is through your own life, and what you've become yourself.

It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.