Quotes from Herbert Hoover

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

The engineer performs many public functions from which he gets only philosophical satisfactions. Most people do not know it, but he is an economic and social force.

When we are sick, we want an uncommon doctor; when we have a construction job to do, we want an uncommon engineer, and when we are at war, we want an uncommon general. It is only when we get into politics that we are satisfied with the common man.

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.

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

The structure of human betterment cannot be built upon foundations of materialism or business, but upon the bedrock of individual character in free men and women.

We are in danger of developing a cult of the Common Man, which means a cult of mediocrity.

Fishing is a constant reminder of the democracy of life, of humility, and of human frailty. The forces of nature discriminate for no man.

The spark of liberty in the mind and spirit of man cannot be long extinguished; it will break into flames that will destroy every coercion which seems to limit it.

No great question will ever be settled in dollars and cents. Great questions must be settled on moral grounds and the tests of what makes free men.

The ancient bitter opposition to improved methods [of production] on the ancient theory that it more than temporarily deprives men of employment... has no place in the gospel of American progress.

My country owes me nothing. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor.

America - a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.

. And it is youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow and the triumphs that are the aftermath of war.

Peace can be contributed to by respect for our ability in defense.

American life is builded ... upon that fundamental philosophy announced by the Savior nineteen centuries ago ... [It] can not survive with the defense of Cain, "Am I my brother's keeper?

Once upon a time my political opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a worldwide depression all by mself.

Children are the most wholesome part of the race, the sweetest, for they are the freshest from the hand of god.

We have not yet reached the goal but.. we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation.

Freedom requires that government keep the channels of competition and opportunity open, prevent monopolies, economic abuse and domination.

If we could have but one generation of properly born, trained, educated, and healthy children, a thousand other problems of government would vanish.

The sole function of Government is to bring about a condition of affairs favorable to the beneficial development of private enterprise.

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

We have gold because we cannot trust governments