Archive

Clara Barton: “I have an almost complete disregard of precedent, and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things have always been done. I defy the tyranny of precedent. I go for anything new that might improve the past.”

Harriet Tubman: “Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world.”

John Paul Jones: “It seems to be a law of nature, inflexible and inexorable, that those who will not risk cannot win.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose they become dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.”

President Barack Obama: “Let us remember we are all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public order, and the right of peaceful protest.”

President Ronald Reagan: “We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”

Secretary of State Cordell Hull: “I am certain that, however great the hardships and the trials which loom ahead, our America will endure and the cause of human freedom will triumph.”

Cordell Hull (Secretary of State, 1933-44) on insults: “Never insult an alligator until after you have crossed the river.”

Justice Hugo Black: “It is the paradox of life that the way to miss pleasure is to seek it first. The very first condition of lasting happiness is that a life should be full of purpose, aiming at something outside self.”

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “Life is an end to itself, and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it.”