Quotes from James Buchanan

To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.

If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country.

The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

But be this as it may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of the Government of the United States to secure to every resident inhabitant the free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote.

Public virtue is the vital spirit of republics, and history proves that when this has decayed and the love of money has usurped its place, although the forms of free government may remain for a season, the substance has departed forever.

What a happy conception, then, was it for Congress to apply this simple rule, that the will of the majority shall govern...

To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.

The distribution of patronage of the Government is by far the most disagreeable duty of the President.

If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country.

The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

The Government of the United States possesses no power whatever over the question of religion.

Our union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war.

If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in the country.

What is right and what is practicable are two different things.

The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men.

If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.

I like the noise of democracy.