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"Property as compared with humanity, as compared with the red blood in the American people, must take second place, not first place."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Campaign address, September 18, 1912, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 26, p. 177, ed. Arthur S. Link. |
"The question of armaments, whether on land or sea, is the most immediately and intensely practical question connected with the future fortunes of nations and of mankind."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Address to the Senate (January 22, 1917). |
"If young gentlemen get from their years in college only manliness, esprit de corps, a release of their social gifts, a training in give and take, a catholic taste in men and the standards of true sportsmen, they have gained much but they have not gained what a college should give them. It should give them insight into the things of the mind and the spirit ... the consciousness of having taken on them the vows of true enlightenment and of having undergone the discipline, never to be shaken off, of those who seek wisdom in candor, with faithful labor and travail of spirit."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Phi Beta Kappa oration, July 1, 1909, at Harvard University. The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 19, p. 385, ed. Arthur S. Link.
Wilson told a friend that into this address he had put "the whole of my academic creed." |
"The world can be at peace only if the world is stable, and there can be no stability where the will is in rebellion, where there is not tranquility of spirit and a sense of justice, of freedom, and of right."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Address to the U.S. Senate (January 22, 1917). |
"If you would be a leader of men you must lead your own generation, not the next. Your playing must be good now, while the play is on the boards and the audience in the seats.... It will not get you the repute of a good actor to have excellencies discovered in you afterwards."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. "Leaders of Men," June 17, 1890. The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 8, p. 652, ed. Arthur S. Link. |
"It must be a peace without victory.... Victory would mean peace forced upon the losers, a victor's terms imposed upon the vanquished. It would be accepted in humiliation, under duress, at an intolerable sacrifice, and would leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory upon which the terms of peace would rest, not permanently, but only as upon quicksand."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Address to the U.S. Senate (January 22, 1917).
Wilson's concept was not welcomed by America's allies, who were pouring out their nations' blood in search of victory. |
"I am not willing to be drawn further into the toils. I cannot accede to the acceptance of gifts upon terms which take the educational policy of the university out of the hands of the Trustees and Faculty and permit it to be determined by those who give money."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Letter, December 25, 1909, to Moses Taylor Pyne. The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, vol. 19, p. 656, ed. Arthur S. Link.
Wilson was writing to the chairman of his board at Princeton. In these words he laid down the principle on which he was fighting to secure rejection of a major gift. |
"Be militant! Be an organization that is going to do things! If you can find older men who will give you countenance and acceptable leadership, follow them; but if you cannot, organize separately and dispense with them. There are only two sorts of men to be associated with when something is to be done: Those are young men and men who never grow old."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Address to the YMCA (October 24, 1914). |
"The soul of me is very selfish. I have gone my way after a fashion that made me the center of the plan. And you who are so individual, who are so independent a spirit, whose soul is also a kingdom, have been so loyal, so forgiving, so self-sacrificing in your willingness to live my life. Nothing but love cold have accomplished so wonderful a thing."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. Woodrow Wilson to Ellen Axson Wilson (September 23, 1913).
Wilson's wife had wanted a career of her own; Wilson was not ignorant of her self-sacrifice. This letter sums up his attitude toward women. A year later, Ellen Wilson died. |
"You cannot, in human experience, rush into the light. You have to go through the twilight into the broadening day before the noon comes and the full sun is upon the landscape."
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), U.S. president. After dinner remarks in Paris (May 9, 1919).
Wilson moderates his hopes and expectations while at the Paris peace conference. |
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Woodrow Wilson
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