The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

America is a nation that conceives many odd inventions for getting somewhere but it can think of nothing to do once it gets there.

It is written on the arched sky; it looks out from every star. It is the poetry of Nature; it is that which uplifts the spirit within us.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

I am proud to have been born in Iowa. Through the eyes of a ten-year-old boy, it was a place of adventure and daily discoveries – the wonder of the growing crops, the excitements of the harvest, the journeys to the woods for nuts and hunting, the joys of snowy winters, the comfort of the family fireside, of good food and tender care.

Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.

Genius… means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

I believe in the spirit of equality and the spirit of this country as one of love and compassion and kindness.

‚Nation‘ was one that I’d have killed myself if I hadn’t written it. It was absolutely important to me that I wrote it. It was good for my soul.

Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

Every age has its own poetry; in every age the circumstances of history choose a nation, a race, a class to take up the torch by creating situations that can be expressed or transcended only through poetry.

We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect.

Heaven is a state of mind, not a location, since Spirit is everywhere and in everything.

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‚Eureka!‘ but ‚That’s funny…‘

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.

Before printing was discovered, a century was equal to a thousand years.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

Wit is the sudden marriage of ideas which, before their union, were not perceived to have any relation.

I’ve always been amazed by Da Vinci, because he worked out science on his own. He would work by drawing things and writing down his ideas. Of course, he designed all sorts of flying machines way before you could actually build something like that.

Now if there is one thing that we do worse than any other nation, it is try and manage somebody else’s affairs.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

Of puns it has been said that those who most dislike them are those who are least able to utter them.

Without publicity there can be no public support, and without public support every nation must decay.

There never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be.

Common sense is the genius of humanity.

There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.

I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.

Ideally a book would have no order to it, and the reader would have to discover his own.

Genius always finds itself a century too early.

Where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character. When there is beauty in the character, there is harmony in the home. When there is harmony in the home, there is order in the nation. When there is order in the nation, there is peace in the world.

Globalization has made copper and other minerals more valuable, and Ghana and Kenya have recently discovered mineral resources.

As we dread any disease that undermines the health of the body, so should we deplore contention, which is a corroding canker of the spirit.

Not all those who wander are lost.

The drawing teacher has this problem of communicating how to draw by osmosis and not by instruction, while the physics teacher has the problem of always teaching techniques, rather than the spirit, of how to go about solving physical problems.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.

The Indians on board said that thence to Cuba was a voyage in their canoes of a day and a half; these being small dug-outs without a sail. Such are their canoes. I departed thence for Cuba, for by the signs the Indians made of its greatness, and of its gold and pearls, I thought that it must be Cipango.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

America… just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.

A novel is a work of poetry. In order to write it, one must have tranquility of spirit and of impression.

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

The resolve of our great nation is being tested. But make no mistake, we will show the world that we will pass the test.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

No one undertakes research in physics with the intention of winning a prize. It is the joy of discovering something no one knew before.

Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.

Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen.

The feeling is constantly growing on me that I had been the first to hear the greeting of one planet to another.

In the theatre, people talk. Talk, talk until the cows come home about journeys of discovery and about what Hazlitt thought of a line of Shakespeare. I can’t stand it.

What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope.

I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

Some sarcasm is best told simply.

Love and desire are the spirit’s wings to great deeds.

Genius is patience.

Mediocrity can talk, but it is for genius to observe.

True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.

The atomic bomb certainly is the most powerful of all weapons, but it is conclusively powerful and effective only in the hands of the nation which controls the sky.

A great poet is the most precious jewel of a nation.

There can be no greater error than to expect, or calculate, upon real favors from nation to nation. It is an illusion which experience must cure, which a just pride ought to discard.

Every nation has to follow a certain policy: Commercial, trade, various other types of policies.

We do not covet anything from any nation except their respect.