Knute Nelson Quotes

What is the purpose of our might if we do not use it for good.

Goodwill can be indicated in various ways. I raised that particular example because at that time I was in charge. Today, I'm not in a position to present other possibilities.

Use power to help people. For we are given power not to advance our own purposes nor to make a great show in the world, nor a name. There is but one just use of power and it is to serve people.

The purpose of getting power is to be able to give it away.

It is straightforward for me to be ethical, responsible, and kind-hearted because I have the resources to support that.

Power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring.

A good chief gives, he does not take.

I think service is honorable, and that was always inculcated in me.

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.

A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.

Men are only as great as they are kind.

If someone as blessed as I am is not willing to clean out the barn, who will?

A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society.

All too often arrogance accompanies strength, and we must never assume that justice is on the side of the strong. The use of power must always be accompanied by moral choice.

Be just before you are generous.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

My heroes are just everyday people who work hard, are honest and have integrity.

Children must be impressed with the fact that the greatest heroes are those who fight to help others, not those who fight for power or glory. They must be made to understand that victory does not prove that the thing fought for is right, nor that defeat proves that a cause is wrong.

Success to me is being a good person, treating people well.

Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.

Doing the right thing has power.

Some say that the age of chivalry is past, that the spirit of romance is dead. The age of chivalry is never past, so long as there is a wrong left unredressed on earth.

He who allows oppression shares the crime.

The only freedom I care about is the freedom to do right; the freedom to do wrong I am ready to part with on the cheapest terms to anyone who will take it of me.

True human goodness, in all its purity and freedom, can come to the fore only when its recipient has no power.