The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Government
Nothing was ever done so systematically as nothing is being done now.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Procrastination
It must be peace without victory; only a peace between equals can last.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Peace, Victory
There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized peace.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Power
I would rather lose in a cause that will someday win, than win in a cause that will someday lose.
—Woodrow Wilson
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.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Character
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.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: America
Generally young men are regarded as radicals. This is a popular misconception. The most conservative persons I ever met are college undergraduates. The radicals are the men past middle life.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Youth
All things come to him who waits—provided he knows what he is waiting for.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Difficulty, Patience, Life
If you think too much about being re-elected,
it is very difficult to be worth re-electing.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Posterity
The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Listening
Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Character
I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Wisdom, Quotations, Knowledge
I am not one of those who believe that a great army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Peace
We grow by our dreams.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Reason, Dreams, Thought
My own ideals for the university are those of a genuine democracy and serious scholarship. These two, indeed, seem to go together.
—Woodrow Wilson
We want the spirit of America to be efficient; we want American character to be efficient; we want American character to display itself in what I may, perhaps, be allowed to call spiritual efficiency—clear disinterested thinking and fearless action along the right lines of thought.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Character
No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all-disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report….
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Deception/Lying
Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Perseverance
All the extraordinary men I have known were extraordinary in their own estimation.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Self-Esteem, Self Respect
I fancy that it is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Criticism, Critics
I would rather fail in a cause that will ultimately triumph than to triumph in a cause that will ultimately fail
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Success & Failure, Success, Failure
The sum of the whole matter is this, that our civilization cannot survive materially unless it be redeemed spiritually
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Survival
Golf is a game in which one endeavors to control a ball with implements ill adapted for the purpose.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Golf
We should not only use the brains we have, but all that we can borrow.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Intelligence
There is no question what the roll of honor in America is. The roll of honor consists of the names of men who have squared their conduct by ideals of duty.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Honor
I feel the responsibility of the occasion? Responsibility is proportionate? to opportunity.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Responsibility
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.
—Woodrow Wilson
They imply, first of all, that it must be a peace without victory. It is not pleasant to say this. I beg that I may be permitted to put my own interpretation upon it and that it may be understood that no other interpretation was in my thought. I am seeking only to face realities and to face them without soft concealments. Victory would mean peace forced upon the loser, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand. Only a peace between equals can last, only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit. The right state of The Mind right feeling between nations, is as necessary for a lasting peace as is the just settlement of vexed questions of territory or of racial and national allegiance.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Peace
The commands of democracy are as imperative as its privileges and opportunities are wide and generous. Its compulsion is upon us.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Responsibility
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Theodore Roosevelt American Head of State
- Jimmy Carter American Head of State
- William McKinley American Head of State
- Ronald Reagan American Head of State
- Bill Clinton American Head of State
- Andrew Jackson American Head of State
- Herbert Hoover American Statesman
- Charles G. Dawes American Diplomat, Politician
- Warren G. Harding American Head of State
- Franklin D. Roosevelt American Head of State
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