Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.
Woodrow WilsonRead
Neutrality is a negative word. It does not express what America ought to feel. We are not trying to keep out of trouble; we are trying to preserve the foundations on which peace may be rebuilt.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes that neutrality is not a proactive stance and that America should focus on building peace rather than avoiding conflict.
Woodrow Wilson's quote critiques the concept of neutrality by suggesting that it is insufficient for achieving meaningful progress. Instead of merely avoiding trouble, he advocates for a commitment to the values and foundations necessary for rebuilding peace, thereby implying that active engagement and responsibility are required to create a stable and harmonious world.
Themes
NeutralityPeaceEngagementAmericaResponsibilityFoundations
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on international relations, one might quote Wilson to emphasize the need for proactive peace-building.
More from Woodrow Wilson
All quotes →Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed against him must be battered down. Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process. Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused.
Woodrow WilsonRead
The history of liberty is the history of limitations on the power of government, not the increase of it. When we resist, therefore, the concentration of power, we are resisting the processes of death, because concentration of power is what always precedes the destruction of human liberties.
Woodrow WilsonRead
We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.
Woodrow WilsonRead
The way to stop financial joyriding is to arrest the chauffeur, not the automobile.
Woodrow WilsonRead
Once lead this people into war, and they'll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life, infecting Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street.
Woodrow WilsonRead
Similar quotes
We keep passing unseen through little moments of other people's lives.
Robert M. PirsigRead
All of history is moving toward one great goal, the white-hot worship of God and His Son among all the peoples of the earth. Missions is not that goal. It is the means. And for that reason it is the second greatest human activity in the world.
John PiperRead
He didn't mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn't matter.
Margery WilliamsRead
To be enlightened is to be aware, always, of total reality in its immanent otherness - to be aware of it and yet remain in a condition to survive as an animal. Our goal is to discover that we have always been where we ought to be. Unhappily we make the task exceedingly difficult for ourselves.
Aldous HuxleyRead
Why is erasing desire seen as so important? If the subjugation of the self is the point of the self what's the point in having a self? It's like someone handing you a leaflet which says throw this leaflet away.
Tibor FischerRead
Those who praise victory relish manslaughter. Those who relish manslaughter cannot reach their goals in the world.
LaoziRead