James Abram Garfield (1831–81) served as the 20th President of the United States, after completing nine consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
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I am trying to do two things: dare to be a radical and not a fool, which is a matter of no small difficulty.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Difficulty
If there is one thing upon this earth that mankind loves and admires 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.
—James A. Garfield
Things don’t turn up in this world until somebody turns them up.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Effort, Inaction, Self-reliance, Procrastination, Getting Going
I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Trouble
The sanctity of marriage and the family relation make the cornerstone of our American society and civilization.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Marriage
Few men in our history have ever obtained the Presidency by planning to obtain it.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Planning
Real political issues cannot be manufactured by the leaders of parties, and cannot be evaded by them.—They declare themselves, and come out of the depths of that deep which we call public opinion.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Politics
Territory is but the body of a nation.—The people who inhabit its hills and valleys are its soul, its spirit, its life.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Nations
The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Strength, Conscience, Commitment, Beliefs
History is but the unrolled scroll of prophecy.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Prophecy, History
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. They grow stiff in the joints. They get in a rut. They go to seed.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Defeat
All free governments are managed by the combined wisdom and folly of the people.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Government
If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Aging, Age, Spirituality
Ideas control the world.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Ideas
He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Nation
Occasion may be the bugle call that summons an army to battle, but the blast of a bugle can never make soldiers nor win battles.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Opportunity
If the power to do hard work is not talent, it is the best possible substitute for it.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Hard Work, Work, Talent
A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Luck
I mean to make myself a man, and if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Man, Men
Next in importance to freedom and justice is popular education, without which neither freedom nor justice can be permanently maintained.
—James A. Garfield
Swift defined observation to be an old man’s memory.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Observation
Talleyrand once said to the first Napoleon that the United States is a giant without bones. Since that time our gristle has been rapidly hardening.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: America
He who would understand the real spirit of literature should not select authors of any one period alone, but rather go to the fountain head, and trace the little rill as it courses along down the ages broadening and deepening into the great ocean of thought which the men of the present are exploring.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Literature
Ideas are the great warriors of the world, and a war that has no idea behind it is simply a brutality.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Ideas
Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify: 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 for himself.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Commitment, Poverty, The Poor, Risk, Dedication
I am not willing that this discussion should close without mention of the value of a true teacher. Give me a log hut, with only a simple bench, Mark Hopkins on one end and I on the other, and you may have all the buildings, apparatus and libraries without him.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Teaching
Now more than ever before, 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 it be intelligent, brave and pure, it is because the people demand these high qualities to represent them in the national legislature … If the next centennial does not find us a great nation…it will be because those who represent the enterprise, the culture, and the morality of the nation do not aid in controlling the political forces.
—James A. Garfield
Topics: Government
If hard work is not another name for talent, it is the best possible substitute for it.
—James A. Garfield
The lesson of history is rarely learned by the actors themselves.
—James A. Garfield
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