In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence whether sought or unsought by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials but the voters of this country.

Any people anywhere being inclined and having the power have the right to rise up and shake off the existing government and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right which we hope and believe is to liberate the world.

Our nation is built on the bedrock principle that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.

The fact that political ideologies are tangible realities is not a proof of their vitally necessary character. The bubonic plague was an extraordinarily powerful social reality but no one would have regarded it as vitally necessary.

Democracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are the powers that ought to be.

The people are the government administering it by their agents they are the government the sovereign power.

What I worry about would be that you essentially have two chambers the House and the Senate but you have simply majoritarian absolute power on either side. And that's just not what the founders intended.

It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Property may be destroyed and money may lose its purchasing power but character health knowledge and good judgement will always be in demand under all conditions.

You have a good many little gifts and virtues but there is no need of parading them for conceit spoils the finest genius. There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long and the great charm of all power is modesty.

Hope is a state of mind not of the world. Hope in this deep and powerful sense is not the same as joy that things are going well or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.

Wisdom allows nothing to be good that will not be so forever no man to be happy but he that needs no other happiness than what he has within himself no man to be great or powerful that is not master of himself.

Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances or whether you are going to taste it enjoy it and find out the truth about who you are.

Our attitudes control our lives. Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day for good or bad. It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and control this great force.

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are as standing in a dictionary how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

Do not ever say that the desire to 'do good' by force is a good motive. Neither power-lust nor stupidity are good motives.

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

What is good? All that heightens the feeling of power the will to power power itself in man.

A good indignation brings out all one's powers.

For good or for ill air mastery is today the supreme expression of military power and fleets and armies however vital and important must accept a subordinate rank.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

I do believe we're all connected. I do believe in positive energy. I do believe in the power of prayer. I do believe in putting good out into the world. And I believe in taking care of each other.