This is essentially a People's contest. On the side of the Union, it is a struggle for maintaining in the world, that form, and su...bstance of government, whose leading object is, to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all shoulders--to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all--to afford all, an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is not merely for today, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children's children this great and free gov...ernment, which we have enjoyed all our lives.... I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is in order that each of you may have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What right has any human being to talk of bringing up a child? You do not bring up a tree or a plant. It brings itself up. You hav...e to give it a fair chance by tilling the soil.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Playing games with agreed upon rules helps children learn to live by rules, establish the delicate balance between competition and... cooperation, between fair play and justice and exploitation and abuse of these for personal gain. It helps them learn to manage the warmth of winning and the hurt of losing; it helps them to believe that there will be another chance to win the next time.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Dollars! All their cares, hopes, joys, affections, virtues, and associations seemed to be melted down into dollars. Whatever the c...hance contributions that fell into the slow cauldron of their talk, they made the gruel thick and slab with dollars. Men were weighed by their dollars, measures were gauged by their dollars; life was auctioneered, appraised, put up, and knocked down for its dollars. The next respectable thing to dollars was any venture having their attainment for its end. The more of that worthless ballast, honour and fair-dealing, which any man cast overboard from the ship of his Good Nature and Good Intent, the more ample stowage-room he had for dollars. Make commerce one huge lie and mighty theft. Deface the banner of the nation for an idle rag; pollute it star by star; and cut out stripe by stripe as from the arm of a degraded soldier. Do anything for dollars! What is a flag to them!LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
All the historians are Harvard people. It just isn't fair. Poor old Hoover from West Branch, Iowa, had no chance with that crowd; ...nor did Andrew Jackson from Tennessee. Nor does Lyndon Johnson from Stonewall, Texas. It just isn't fair.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You that choose not by the view, Chance as fair, and choose as true:... Since this fortune falls to you, Be content, and seek no new.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate.... Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, And often is his gold complexion dimmed; And every fair from fair sometime declines, By chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed; But thy eternal summer shall not fade Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st, Nor shall Death brag thou wand'rest in his shade When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st. So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »