Top 350 Woodrow Wilson Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “If you lose your wealth, you have lost nothing; if you lose your health, you have lost something; but if you lose your character, you have lost everything.”

— Woodrow Wilson

2. “Justice, and only justice, shall always be our motto.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Featured in: Justice Quotes

3. “This is a war to end all wars.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Featured in: Quotes About War

4. “We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Featured in: Dreaming Big Quotes, Sports Quotes

5. “I not only use all the brains that I have, but all I can borrow.”

— Woodrow Wilson

6. “We cannot be separated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand together until the end.”

— Woodrow Wilson

7. “There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.”

— Woodrow Wilson

8. “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”

— Woodrow Wilson

9. “Wilson was once asked how long it took him to write a speech. He answered, ‘That depends. If I am to speak 10 minutes, I need a week for preparation. If 15 minutes, 3 days. If half hour, two days. If an hour, I am ready now.’”

— Woodrow Wilson

10. “Loyalty means nothing unless it has at its heart the absolute principle of self-sacrifice.”

— Woodrow Wilson

11. “You are not here merely to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

— Woodrow Wilson

12. “It is easier to move a cemetery than to change a curriculum.”

— Woodrow Wilson

13. “Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”

— Woodrow Wilson

14. “The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is, not to frighten them, but to challenge them.”

— Woodrow Wilson

15. “The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Featured in: Boss Quotes, Government Quotes

16. “We are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.”

— Woodrow Wilson

17. “The difference between a strong man and a weak one is that the former does not give up after a defeat.”

— Woodrow Wilson

18. “The object of love is to serve, not to win.”

— Woodrow Wilson

19. “We are not here merely to make a living. We are here to enrich the world.”

— Woodrow Wilson

20. “There is a power so organized, so subtle, so complete, and so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.”

— Woodrow Wilson

21. “There is no indispensable man.”

— Woodrow Wilson

22. “The world can be at peace only if the world is stable, and there can be no stability where the will is in rebellion, where there is not tranquility of spirit and a sense of justice, of freedom, and of right.”

— Woodrow Wilson

23. “The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.”

— Woodrow Wilson

24. “The Constitution was not made to fit us like a straitjacket. In its elasticity lies its chief greatness.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Featured in: Greatness Quotes

25. “The way to stop financial joyriding is to arrest the chauffeur, not the automobile.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Featured in: Quotes About Money

26. “Self-determination is not a mere phrase. It is an imperative principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth ignore at their peril.”

— Woodrow Wilson

27. “There must be, not a balance of power, but a community of power; not organized rivalries, but an organized peace.”

— Woodrow Wilson

28. “We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the things that unite.”

— Woodrow Wilson

29. “Only a peace between equals can last. Only a peace the very principle of which is equality and a common participation in a common benefit.”

— Woodrow Wilson

30. “America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand.”

— Woodrow Wilson

31. “If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if an hour, I am ready now.”

— Woodrow Wilson

32. “Never attempt to murder a man who is committing suicide.”

— Woodrow Wilson

33. “Life does not consist in thinking, it consists in acting.”

— Woodrow Wilson

34. “I would rather lose in a cause that will some day win, than win in a cause that will some day lose.”

— Woodrow Wilson

35. “Tell me what is right and I will fight for it.”

— Woodrow Wilson

36. “We live in an age disturbed, confused, bewildered, afraid of its own forces, in search not merely of its road but even of its direction.”

— Woodrow Wilson

37. “To think that I, the son of the manse, should be able to help restore the Holy Land to its people.”

— Woodrow Wilson

38. “America is not a mere body of traders; it is a body of free men. Our greatness is built upon our freedom – is moral, not material. We have a great ardor for gain; but we have a deep passion for the rights of man.”

— Woodrow Wilson

Featured in: Passion Quotes, Greatness Quotes

39. “All things come to him who waits – provided he knows what he is waiting for.”

— Woodrow Wilson

40. “You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.”

— Woodrow Wilson

41. “Let it be your pride to show all men everywhere not only what good soldiers you are, but also what good men you are.”

— Woodrow Wilson

42. “Just what is it that America stands for? If she stands for one thing more than another it is for the sovereignty of self-governing people.”

— Woodrow Wilson

43. “Benevolence does not consist in those who are prosperous pitying and helping those who are not. It consists in fellow feeling that puts you upon actually the same level with the fellow who suffers.”

— Woodrow Wilson

44. “The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.”

— Woodrow Wilson

45. “No man has ever risen to the stature of spiritual manhood until he has found that it is finer to serve somebody else than it is to serve himself.”

— Woodrow Wilson

46. “I would rather fail in a cause that would ultimately succeed, than succeed in a cause that would ultimately fail.”

— Woodrow Wilson

47. “I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.”

— Woodrow Wilson

48. “Sometimes people call me an idealist. Well, that is the way I know I am an American. America is the only idealistic nation in the world.”

— Woodrow Wilson

49. “The truth is we are all caught in a great economic system which is heartless.”

— Woodrow Wilson

50. “The history of liberty is a history of resistance.”

— Woodrow Wilson