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William McKinley
16 quotes
“War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1897)
“Illiteracy must be banished from the land if we shall attain that high destiny as the foremost of the enlightened nations of the world which, under Providence, we ought to achieve.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1897 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First Inaugural Address (March 4, 1897).
“We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remark to personal secretary George Cortelyou (1898).
“The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1898 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter (December 21, 1898).
“Our differences are policies; our agreements, principles.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Des Moines, Iowa (1901).
“The American flag has not been planted on foreign soil to acquire more territory but for humanity's sake.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1900 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted from July 12, 1900, on 1900 US campaign poster, of McKinley and his choice for second term Vice President, Theodore Roosevelt.
“Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
“Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of earth.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
“Expositions are the timekeepers of progress.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
“Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1901 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech delivered at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York (September 5, 1901).
“When I next realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them … And one night late it came to me this way…:”
William McKinley (1843–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“#That we could not give them back to Spain — that would be cowardly and dishonorable;”
William McKinley (1843–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“#that we could not turn them over to France and Germany-our commercial rivals in the Orient — that would be bad business and discreditable”
William McKinley (1843–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“#that we not leave them to themselves — they are unfit for self-government — and they would soon have anarchy and misrule over there worse than Spain's wars; and”
William McKinley (1843–1901) said by 1901 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“#that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1899 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Attributed by James F. Rusling "Interview with President McKinley" The Christian Advocate (22 January 1903), as remarks from a meeting with clergymen on 21 November 1899. The overtly religious part is disputed in Lewis …
“Under free trade the trader is the master and the producer the slave. Protection is but the law of nature, the law of self-preservation, of self-development, of securing the highest and best destiny of the race of man. [It is said] that protection is immoral.... Why, if protection builds up and elevates 63,000,000 [the U.S. population] of people, the influence of those 63,000,000 of people elevates the rest of the world. We cannot take a step in the pathway of progress without benefiting mankind everywhere. Well, they say, "Buy where you can buy the cheapest".... Of course, that applies to labor as to everything else. Let me give you a maxim that is a thousand times better than that, and it is the protection maxim: "Buy where you can pay the easiest." And that spot of earth is where labor wins its highest rewards.”
William McKinley (1843–1901) first seen 1892 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in Boston, MA (Oct. 4, 1892) William McKinley Papers, Library of Congress.