Herbert Hoover

“The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the grave like the doctors. He cannot argue them into thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers.”

“The opportunities of America opened out to me the public schools. They carried me to the professional training of an American university. I began by working with my own hands for my daily bread.”

“Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties, but in the hearts of men.”

“About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.”

“The glory of the nation rests in the character of her men. And character comes from boyhood. Thus, every boy is a challenge to his elders.”

“Free government is the most difficult of all government. But it is everlastingly true that the plain people will make fewer mistakes than any other group of men, no matter how powerful.”

“When all the routines and details and the human bores get on our nerves, we just yearn to go away from here to somewhere else. To go fishing is a sound, a valid, and an accepted reason for an escape. It requires no explanation.”

“Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.”

“Children are our most valuable natural resource.”

“Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.”

“The thing I enjoyed most were visits from children. They did not want public office.”

“Engineering training deals with the exact sciences. That sort of exactness makes for truth and conscience. It might be good for the world if more men had that sort of mental start in life even if they did not pursue the profession.”

“Economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.”

“All men are equal before fish.”

“My earliest realization of the stir of national life was the torch parade in the Garfield campaign. On that occasion, I was not only allowed out that night, but I saw the lamps being filled and lighted.”

“Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.”

“The New Deal repudiation of democracy has left the Republican Party alone the guardian of the Ark of the Covenant with its charter of freedom.”

“The United States fully accepts the profound truth that our own progress, prosperity, and peace are interlocked with the progress, prosperity, and peace of all humanity.”

“I am no supporter of factory labor for children, but I have never joined with those who clamored against proper work of children on farms outside their school hours.”

“True liberal government is founded on the emancipation of men.”