Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American.

WOODROW WILSON, address supporting the League of Nations, September 8, 1919

Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.

WOODROW WILSON, address at Citizenship Convention in Washington, Jul. 13, 1916

There was a time when corporations played a minor part in our business affairs, but now they play the chief part, and most men are the servants of corporations.

WOODROW WILSON, "The Old Order Changeth," The New Freedom

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance.

WOODROW WILSON, speech at New York Press Club, Sep. 9, 1912

There is a price which is too great to pay for peace, and that price can be put in one word. One cannot pay the price of self-respect.

WOODROW WILSON, speech in Des Moines, Iowa, February 1, 1916

Loyalty means that you ought to be ready to sacrifice every interest that you have, and your life itself, if your country calls upon you to do so, and that is the sort of loyalty which ought to be inculcated into these newcomers, that they are not to be loyal only so long as they are pleased, but that, having once entered into this sacred relationship, they are bound to be loyal whether they are pleased or not; and that loyalty which is merely self-pleasing is only self-indulgence and selfishness. No man has ever risen to the real stature of spiritual manhood until he has found that it is finer to serve somebody else than it is to serve himself.

WOODROW WILSON, address at Citizenship Convention in Washington, Jul. 13, 1916

You deal in the raw material of opinion, and, if my convictions have any validity, opinion ultimately governs the world.

WOODROW WILSON, address to the Associated Press, April 20, 1915

Power consists in one's capacity to link his will with the purpose of others, to lead by reason and a gift of cooperation.

WOODROW WILSON, letter to Mary A. Hulbert, September 21, 1913

We stand apart, unembroiled, conscious of our own principles, conscious of what we hope and purpose.... Neutrality is a negative word. It does not express what America ought to feel. We are not trying to keep out of trouble; we are trying to preserve the foundations on which peace may be rebuilt.

WOODROW WILSON, address to the Daughters of the American Revolution, October 11, 1915

We admire physical courage, but we admire above all things else moral courage. I believe that soldiers will bear me out in saying that both come in time of battle. I take it that the moral courage comes in going into the battle, and the physical courage in staying in.

WOODROW WILSON, remarks on Memorial Day, 1914

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

WOODROW WILSON, speech to the National Press Club, March 20, 1914

I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose!

WOODROW WILSON, attributed, American Politics and the Party System