Daniel Webster on America

Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together.

The world is governed more by appearances than realities, so that it is fully as necessary to seem to know something as to know it.

An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy.

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.

Theodore Roosevelt1858–1919Kansas City Star (7 May 1918)

• Politics

Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted all other possibilities.

Winston Churchill1874–1965

No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.

H. L. Mencken1880–1956‘Notes On Journalism’ in the Chicago Tribune (19 September 1926)