Gordon S. Wood Quotes

... the grand depository of the democratic principles of the Government ...

Under our free republican form of government the character and stability of the government depended upon the character of the citizen, the country could not continue safely incorporating into its body politic the ignorant, criminal, dangerous and hostile elements that are now being emptied upon those shores.

I’m an optimist. If you’re not an optimist, this [Congress] isn’t the job for you.

If Christianity is pessimistic as to man, it is optimistic as to human destiny. Well, I can say that, pessimistic as to human destiny, I am optimistic as to man.

We're going to be eternally optimistic that the Senate is going to get their work done.

I'm cynical about society, politics, newspapers, government. But I'm not cynical about life, love, goodness, death. That's why I really don't want to be labeled a cynic.

I guess the optimistic thing is that those people in Congress who are climate deniers, I think their time has run out.

Self-government by the whole people is the teleologic idea. The republican form of government is the noblest and the best, as it is the latest.

Those characters wherein fear predominates over hope may apprehend too much from...instances of irregularity. They may conclude too hastily that nature has formed man insusceptible of any other government than that of force, a conclusion not founded in truth nor experience.

Anything which retains interest is optimistic. When the characters become disinterested, it's pessimistic. Does that make sense?

The desire to believe the best of people is a prerequisite for intercourse with strangers; suspicion is reserved for friends.

Jefferson refused to pin his hopes on the occasional success of honest and unambitious men; on the contrary, the great danger was that philosophers would be lulled into complacence by the accidental rise of a Franklin or a Washington. Any government which made the welfare of men depend on the character of their governors was an illusion.

Our founding fathers never intended that Congress be a career.

When it comes to pay raises, Congress always plays the role of Grinch. The bill extends an existing pay freeze for Vice President Joe Biden, specifically, and senior political appointees broadly.

I can say that I am, by nature, optimistic.

There are people working their butts off trying to save our republic and save democracy from the likes of powerful people in the Democrat Party who want to take this country and turn it into a personal little playground for their own private gain.

Congress is best viewed from a distance - the farther the better - because up close, it is truly ugly.

One of the things that I've urged the president-elect to do is to develop a strong working relationship with the intelligence community and I think it's important that Congress, on a bipartisan basis.

To model our political system upon speculations of lasting tranquility, is to calculate on the weaker springs of the human character.

We have retained the forms and phrases of a republic, but in reality we are living under an oligarchy, not of courtesan, but of bureaucrats.

Being a pessimist is just such a gloomy way of looking at things, so I have to hope for the best - life wouldn't be worth living if we didn't have hope. And I also do think that human beings often do do wonderful, correct, brilliant things. So, on balance, I'd like to be optimistic about the future.

The American myth is of free will in its simple, primary sense. One can choose oneself and will oneself; and this absurdly optimistic assumption so dominates the republic that it has bred all its gross social injustices.

If you are feeling overly optimistic the Republican Candidates Debate is on.

It is not, perhaps, unreasonable to conclude, that a pure and perfect democracy is a thing not attainable by man, constituted as he is of contending elements of vice and virtue, and ever mainly influenced by the predominant principle of self-interest. It may, indeed, be confidently asserted, that there never was that government called a republic, which was not ultimately ruled by a single will, and, therefore, (however bold may seem the paradox,) virtually and substantially a monarchy.

Personally, I never admired communists because they operate on the theory that human beings are nice people.