Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson

34 quotes

Recognized as a President of the United States from 1913 to 1921, Woodrow Wilson offered the world both action and articulate reflection. Known for Wilsonianism, their words carry the weight of lived experience. With 51 quotes in our library, Woodrow Wilson is among the most well-represented voices here, with thoughts on Government, Politics, History, Science, and Peace. Start here and see if you agree: "A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits."

“You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Hope

All Quotes by Woodrow Wilson

“The history of liberty is a history of resistance.”

— Woodrow Wilson

History

“Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Government

“There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Religion

“The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.”

— Woodrow Wilson

History

“I have long enjoyed the friendship and companionship of Republicans because I am by instinct a teacher, and I would like to teach them something.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Friendship

“If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Change

“The method of political science is the interpretation of life its instrument is insight, a nice understanding of subtle, unformulated conditions.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Science

“A little group of willful men, representing no opinion but their own, have rendered the great government of the United States helpless and contemptible.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Government

“We have not given science too big a place in our education, but we have made a perilous mistake in giving it too great a preponderance in method in every other branch of study.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Education

“A conservative is someone who makes no changes and consults his grandmother when in doubt.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Politics

“My dream of politics all my life has been that it is the common business, that it is something we owe to each other to understand and discuss with absolute frankness.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Business

“The awakening of the people of China to the possibilities under free government is the most significant, if not the most momentous, event of our generation.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Government

“I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Intelligence

“Interest does not tie nations together it sometimes separates them. But sympathy and understanding does unite them.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Sympathy

“The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Government

“In the Lord's Prayer, the first petition is for daily bread. No one can worship God or love his neighbor on an empty stomach.”

— Woodrow Wilson

God

“Absolute identity with one's cause is the first and great condition of successful leadership.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Leadership

“One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Cool

“Liberty has never come from Government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of governmental power, not the increase of it.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Government

“If there are men in this country big enough to own the government of the United States, they are going to own it.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Government