I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." - Theodore Roosevelt

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

speak softly and carry a big stick

What is the lesson to us to-day? Are we to go the way of the older civilizations? The immense increase in the area of civilized activity to-day, so that it is nearly coterminous with the world's surface; the immense increase in the multitudinous variety of its activities; the immense increase in the velocity of the world movement—are all these to mean merely that the crash will be all the more complete and terrible when it comes? We can not be certain that the answer will be in the negative; but of this we can be certain, that we shall not go down in ruin unless we deserve and earn our end. There is no necessity for us to fall; we can hew out our destiny for ourselves, if only we have the wit and the courage and the honesty.

...the majority in a democracy has no more right to tyrannize over a minority than, under a different system, the latter would to oppress the former.

The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired, in value.