Woodrow Wilson Quotes

I believe in individual rights so much that I don't like any sort of 'what's good for the cause'-type questions.

Zeal for the public good is the characteristic of a man of honor and a gentleman, and must take the place of pleasures, profits and all other private gratifications.

It is an adherent condition of human affairs that no intention, however sincere, of protecting the interests of others, can make it safe or salutary to tie up their own hands.

Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good.

What is the freedom of the most free? To do what is right!

Altruism demands that an individual serve others, but doesn’t stipulate whether those others should be one’s family, or the homeless, or society as a whole. Collectivism states that, in politics, society comes first and the individual must obey. Collectivism is the application of the altruist ethics to politics.

True religion always moves us to serve others and to give our lives to see those oppressed find freedom.

My claim is that we should focus on the values of liberty... If there is not government to insist on those values, then who? ... The single unifying force should be that we govern ourselves.

Humble people can do great things with uncommon perfection because they are no longer concerned about their own interests and their own reputation, and therefore they no longer need to waste their efforts in defending them.

No universal selfishness can bring social good to all.

When you start to live outside yourself, it's all dangerous.

A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire, or preserve his freedom.

It is important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness

Men inadvertently comport themselves with nobility when they have grown accustomed to wanting nothing from others and always giving to them.

Asking, ‘If there is no God, what is the purpose of life?’ is like asking, ‘If there is no master, whose slave will I be?’ If your purpose of life is to submit as a slave, then your meaning comes from flattering the ego of a person whom you should detest.

ANARCHY, or the government of each man by himself or as the English say, self -government.

If, in the present chaotic and shameful struggle for existence, when organized society offers a premium on greed, cruelty, and deceit, men can be found who stand aloof and almost alone in their determination to work for good rather than gold

Believing that I was born for the service of mankind, and regarding the care of the commonwealth as a kind of common property which, like the air and the water, belongs to everybody, I set myself to consider in what way mankind might be best served, and what service I was myself best fitted by nature to perform.

There is no liberty except the liberty of some one making his way towards something. Such a man can be set free if you will teach him the meaning of thirst, and how to trace a path to a well. Only then will he embark upon a course of action that will not be without significance. You could not liberate a stone if there were no law of gravity - for where will the stone go, once it is quarried?

Freedom, liberty, individual rights, that idea of dealing with other people in a matter that is not initiating force against them, is critical to me.

The desire to serve the common good must without fail be a requisite of the soul, a necessity for personal happiness; if it issuesnot from there, but from theoretical or other considerations, it is not at all the same thing.

A purpose you impart is no longer your own.

Punishment renders autonomy of conscience impossible.

It is in struggle and service with our brothers and sisters, individually and collectively, that we find the meaning of life.

To toil for a hard master is bitter, but to have no master to toil for is more bitter still.