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Abraham Lincoln, 16th US President (1809-1865) - “I don't know who my grandfather was; I am much more concerned to know what his grandson will be.”

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Susan B. Anthony, social reformer and women's rights activist (1820-1906) - “No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent.”

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William O. Douglas, former associate justice of the US Supreme Court (1898-1980) - “Free speech is not to be regulated like diseased cattle and impure butter. The audience that hissed yesterday may applaud today, even for the same performance.”

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Keillor Garrison, author, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality (1942-) - “The most un-American thing you can say is, 'You can't say that.’”

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Mark Twain, writer, humorist, and publisher (1835-1910) - “We are called the nation of inventors. And we are. We could still claim that title and wear its loftiest honors if we had stopped with the first thing we ever invented, which was human liberty.”

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Jane Addams, social worker and women's suffrage activist and leader (1860-1935) -

“I do not believe that women are better than men. We have not wrecked railroads, nor corrupted legislatures, nor done many unholy things that men have done; but then we must remember that we have not had the chance.” 

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Benjamin Franklin, polymath and one of the Founding Fathers (1706-1790) - “The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.”

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Martin Luther King Jr., Baptist minister and civil rights activist (1929-1968) - “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

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Harry S. Truman, 33rd US President (1884-1972) - “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”

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Ralph Waldo Emerson, poet and philosopher (1803-1882) - “America is another name for opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of divine providence on behalf of the human race.”

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Bill Clinton, 42nd US President (1946-) - “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”

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George W. Bush, 43rd US President (1946-) - “To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say: You, too, can be president of the United States.”

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George S. Patton, US Army general (1885-1945) - “Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of men who follow and of the man who leads that gains the victory.”

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Gloria Steinem, journalist and social political activist (1934-) - “Most American children suffer too much mother and too little father.”

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Charles F. Browne, writer and humorist (1834-1867) - “We can’t all be Washingtons, but we can all be patriots.” 

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Nathan Hale, American Revolutionary War soldier (1755-1776) - “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.”

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Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919) - “To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.”

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John F. Kennedy, 35th US President (1917-1963) - “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.”

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Mark Twain, writer, humorist, and publisher (1835-1910) - “Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government when it deserves it.”

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John Adams, 2nd US President (1735-1826) - “Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.”

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Jeannette Rankin, activist and first woman elected to the US House of Representatives (1880-1973) - “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”

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Amelia Earhart, aviation pioneer and author (1897-1939) - “Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace.”

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Maya Angelou, poet and civil rights activist (1928-2014) - “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.”

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Malcolm X, African-American Muslim minister and human rights activist (1925-1965) - “Sitting at the table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American.”

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Thomas Jefferson, 3rd US President (1743-1826) - “I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.”

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Eugene V. Debs, union leader (1855-1926) - “I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks.”

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Barack Obama, 44th US President (1961-) - “Americans ... still believe in an America where anything's possible—they just don't think their leaders do.”

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Rosa Parks, civil rights activist (1913-2005) - “I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”

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Eleanor Roosevelt, diplomat, activist, and former First Lady (1884-1962) -

“The American Dream can no more remain static than can the American nation.... We cannot any longer take an old approach to world problems. They aren't the same problems. It isn't the same world. We must not adopt the methods of our ancestors; instead, we must emulate that pioneer quality in our ancestors that made them attempt new methods for a New World.”

See also: The routines of history's greatest minds

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