Quote

Personally I do not resort to force - not even the force of law - to advance moral reforms. I prefer education, argument, persuasion, and above all the influence of example - of fashion.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Rutherford B. Hayes
Age: 70 †
Born: 1822
Born: October 4
Died: 1893
Died: January 17
19Th U.S. President
Lawyer
Military Officer
Politician
Statesperson
Delaware
Ohio
Rutherford Birchard Hayes
Rutherford Hayes
R. B. Hayes
President Hayes
Education
Personally
Law
Prefer
Moral
Reform
Force
Ethics
Reforms
Even
Argument
Resort
Influence
Resorts
Fashion
Persuasion
Example
Advance

More quotes by Rutherford B. Hayes

Image
I hope you will be benefitted by your churchgoing. Where the habit does not Christianize, it generally civilizes. That is reason enough for supporting churches, if there were no higher.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
If any of my men kill prisoners, I'll kill them.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
Both parties are injured by what is going on at Washington. Both are, therefore, more and more disposed to look for candidates outside of that atmosphere.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
Universal suffrage is sound in principle. The radical element is right.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
For character, to prepare for the inevitable I recommend selections from [Ralph Waldo] Emerson. His writings have done for me far more than all other reading.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
An amazing invention - but who would ever want to use one?
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
Abolish plutocracy if you would abolish poverty.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
I too mean to be out of politics. The ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment gives me the boon of equality before the law, terminates my enlistment, and discharges me cured.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
The best hopes of any community rest upon that class of its gifted young men who are not encumbered with large possessions.... I now speak of extensive scholarship and ripe culture in science and art.... It is not large possessions, it is large expectations, or rather large hopes, that stimulate the ambition of the young.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
I have the greatest aversion to being a candidate on a ticket with a man whose record as an upright public man is to be in question--to be defended from the beginning to the end.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
Wars will remain while human nature remains. I believe in my soul in cooperation, in arbitration but the soldier's occupation we cannot say is gone until human nature is gone.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
There can be no complete and permanent reform of the civil service until public opinion emancipates congressmen from all control and influence over government patronage. Legislation is required to establish the reform. No proper legislation is to be expected as long as members of Congress are engaged in procuring offices for their constituents.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
The unrestricted competition so commonly advocated does not leave us the survival of the fittest. The unscrupulous succeed best in accumulating wealth.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
Let every man, every corporation, and especially let every village, town, and city, every county and State, get out of debt and keep out of debt. It is the debtor that is ruined by hard times.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
Youth, however, is a defect that she is fast getting away from and may perhaps be entirely rid of before I shall want her.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
The gloomy theology of the orthodox--the Calvinists--I do not, I cannot believe. Many of the notions--nay, most of the notions--which orthodox people have of the divinity of the Bible, I disbelieve. I am so nearly infidel in all my views, that too, in spite of my wishes, that none but the most liberal doctrines can command my assent.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
My policy is trust, peace, and to put aside the bayonet. I do not think the wise policy is to decide contested elections in the States by the use of the national army.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
I am succeeding very well so far with my legging, but it is a very mean business for a man that has been well brought up to engage in. It is the only way to get a bill from Cincinnati through, so it must be done.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
I would honor the man who give to his country a good newspaper.
Rutherford B. Hayes
Image
Fighting battles is like courting girls: those who make the most pretensions and are boldest usually win.
Rutherford B. Hayes