Wendell Willkie Quotes

American liberty is a religion. It is a thing of the spirit.

It is from weakness that people reach for dictators and concentrated government power. Only the strong can be free. And only the productive can be strong.

The defense of our democracy against the forces that threaten it from without has made some of its failures to function at home glaringly apparent.

Free men are the strongest men.

Emancipation came to the colored race in America as a war measure. It was an act of military necessity. Manifestly it would have come without war, in the slower process of humanitarian reform and social enlightenment.

No man has the right to use the great powers of the Presidency to lead the people, indirectly, into war.

I have noticed, with much distress, the excessive wartime activity of the investigating bureaus of Congress and the administration, with their impertinent and indecent searching out of the private lives and the past political beliefs of individuals.

History shows that our way of life is the stronger way. From it has come more wealth, more industry, more happiness, more human enlightenment than from any other way.

I believe the moral losses of expediency always far outweigh the temporary gains.

Be honorable yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people.

Freedom of the press is the staff of life, for any vital democracy.

The test of good manners is to be able to put up pleasantly with bad ones.

Tolerance is the assumption of superiority

I am not interested in the support of anybody who stands for any form of prejudice as to anybody's race or religion ... I have no place in my philosophy for such beliefs.

In addition, as citizens, we must fight in their incipient stages all movements by government or party or pressure groups that seek to limit the legitimate liberties of any of our fellow citizens.

It has been a long while since the United States had any imperialistic designs toward the outside world. But we have practised within our own boundaries something that amounts to race imperialism.

A true world outlook is incompatible with a foreign imperialism, no matter how high-minded the governing country.

But we cannot just take this historical fact for granted. We must make it live.

Freedom is an indivisible word. If we want to enjoy it, and fight for it, we must be prepared to extend it to everyone, whether they are rich or poor, whether they agree with us or not, no matter what their race or the color of their skin.

But if we had to trade with a Europe dominated by the present German trade policies, we might have to change our methods to some totalitarian form. This is a prospect that any lover of democracy must view with consternation.

I believe in America because we have great dreams, and because we have the opportunity to make those dreams come true.

There exists in the world today a gigantic reservoir of good will toward us, the American people.

The constitution does not provide for first and second class citizens.

For now more than ever, we must keep in the forefront of our minds the fact that whenever we take away the liberties of those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.