Thirteen Quotes from American History

1. “National honor is national property of the highest value.” By James Monroe (first Inaugural Address)

2.  “Our country!In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong.” By Stephen Decatur

3.  “Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.” By Daniel Webster

4.  “The office of government is not to confer happiness, but to give men opportunity to work out happiness for themselves.” By William Ellery Channing

5.  “The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trust, bestowed for the good of a country, and not for the benefit of an individual or a party.” By J.C. Calhoun

6.  “War is cruel and you cannot refine it.” By William Tecumseh Sherman

7.  “Men are not superior by reason of the accidents of race or color. They are superior who have the best heart – the best brain.” By Robert Ingersoll

8.  “Labor to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire – conscience.” By George Washington

9.  “The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.” By Patrick Henry

10.  “Ideals are like stars; you will not succeed in touching them with your hands. But like the seafaring man on the desert of waters, you choose them as your guides, and following them you will reach your destiny.” By Carl Schurz

11.  “Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men! Do not pray for tasks equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks.” By Philip Brooks

12.  “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” By Abraham Lincoln (1863, The Gettysburg Address)

13.  “In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger.. . . The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it – and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” By John F. Kennedy (1961, Inaugural Address)

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