Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) was a Democratic Party political leader who served the 28th president of the United States from 1913 until 1921. He led the country into World War I, played a principal role in the ensuing peace negotiations, and led the creation of the League of Nations. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.
Wilson was a renowned professor of law and political science and an inventive president of Princeton University before he launched his exceptional political career, first as governor of the state of New Jersey and then as president of the United States.
As President, Wilson carried out a series of successful administrative and fiscal reforms. His “New Freedom” policy cut trade tariffs, imposed the first federal income tax, recognized the banking system, formed the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Trade Commission, increased protection for trade unions, boosted workmen’s compensation, and set restrictions on child labor.
Following the outbreak of World War I in Europe in 1914, America preserved its neutral status. However, when the Germans reintroduced unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson entered the war on the Allied side in April 1917. Wilson’s well-known “Fourteen Points” speech of January 1918 stressed the principles of democracy and self-determination and guided an eventual peace treaty that ended the war.
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Woodrow Wilson
All the extraordinary men I have known were extraordinary in their own estimation.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Self-Esteem, Self Respect
The truth is, we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Economics
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
Politics I conceive to be nothing more than the science of the ordered progress of society along the lines of greatest usefulness and convenience to itself.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Usefullness, Politics
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.
—Woodrow Wilson
A little group of willful men reflecting no opinion but their own have rendered the great Government of the United States helpless and contemptible.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Self-interest, Selfishness
Prosperity is necessarily the first theme of a political campaign.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Politics
Character is a by-product; it is produced in the great manufacture of daily duty.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Character
Today’s greatest labor-saving device is tomorrow.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Procrastination, Labor
A man is not as big as his belief in himself;
he is as big as the number of persons who believe in him.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Inspiration
Most men are individuals no longer so far as their business, its activities, or its moralities are concerned. They are not units but fractions; with their individuality and independence of choice in matters of business they have lost all their individual choice within the field of morals.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Business
Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Perseverance
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter’s evening. Some of us let these dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who hope that their dreams will come true.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Growth, Dreams
The interesting and inspiring thing about America is that she asks nothing for herself except what she has a right to ask for humanity itself.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: America
America is not anything if it consists of each of us. It is something only if it consists of all of us.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Individuality
We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Miscellaneous, Togetherness, Unity
Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Democracy
If a dog will not come to you after he has looked you in the face, you ought to go home and examine your conscience.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Conscience
The nature of men and of organized society dictates the maintenance in every field of action of the highest and purest standards of justice and of right dealing…. By justice the lawyer generally means the prompt, fair, and open application of impartial rules; but we call ours a Christian civilization, and a Christian conception of justice must be much higher. It must include sympathy and helpfulness and a willingness to forego self-interest in order to promote the welfare, happiness, and contentment of others and of the community as a whole.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Justice
The way to stop financial “joy-riding” is to arrest the chauffeur, not the automobile.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Business, Money
Golf is an ineffectual attempt to put an elusive ball into an obscure hole with implements ill-adapted to the purpose.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Golf
There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized peace.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Power
We should not only master questions, but also act upon them, and act definitely.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Questions
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
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
America lives in the heart of every man everywhere who wishes to find a region where he will be free to work out his destiny as he chooses.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Wishes, America
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, Failure, Success
My own ideals for the university are those of a genuine democracy and serious scholarship. These two, indeed, seem to go together.
—Woodrow Wilson
Uncompromising thought is the luxury of the closeted recluse.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Luxury
I would rather belong to a poor nation that was free than to a rich nation that had ceased to be in love with liberty.
—Woodrow Wilson
Topics: Liberty, Nation
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