Nobody I think ought to read poetry or look at pictures or statues who cannot find a great deal more in them than the poet or artist has actually expressed. Their highest merit is suggestiveness.

There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both but by too much prudence may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either.

It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.

You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. Whatever your present environment may be you will fall remain or rise with your thoughts your vision your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire as great as your dominant aspiration.

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

A weak mind is like a microscope which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.

Where the willingness is great the difficulties cannot be great.

The little may contrast with the great in painting but cannot be said to be contrary to it. Oppositions of colors contrast but there are also colors contrary to each other that is which produce an ill effect because they shock the eye when brought very near it.

I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.

Life is not an easy matter... You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery above weakness above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.

If you cannot do great things do small things in a great way.

A great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.

Knowledge is invariably a matter of degree: you cannot put your finger upon even the simplest datum and say this we know.

We cannot improve on the system of government handed down to us by the founders of the Republic. There is no way to improve upon that. But what we can do is to find new ways to implement that system and realize our destiny.

Government cannot do it all. As we work hard to break welfare dependency and get young people ready for the labour market we need businesses to give them a chance and not just fall back on labour from abroad.

This is a country for of and by the people not for of and by the government. If we turn it over to them we cannot complain about what they're doing because this is a natural course of men and we have to hold their feet to the fire.

At a time of such hope and optimism in the Middle East we cannot let the Libyan government violate every principle of international law and human rights with impunity.

In a democracy citizens pass judgment on their government and if they are kept in the dark about what their government is doing they cannot be in a position to make well-grounded decisions.

I cannot think of any circumstances in which a government can go to war without the support of parliament.

The United States is at a critical juncture in time. Our government is riddled with historic debt and the limited resources of philanthropic and non-profit efforts cannot meet the scale of social challenges we face with necessary force.

If Bush as I believe has reliable information on the fact that Saddam Hussein is making weapons of mass destruction I cannot not support the policies of his government.

I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an Emperor or a King my republican feelings and principles forbid it the simplicity of our system of government forbids it.

Republicans and Democrats have used accounting gimmicks and competing government analyses to deceive the public into believing that 2 + 2 = 6. If our leaders cannot agree on the numbers if 'facts' are fictional how can they possibly have a substantive debate on solutions?

We are beginning a new era in our government. I cannot too strongly urge the necessity of a rigid economy and an inflexible determination not to enlarge the income beyond the real necessities of the government.