Maxims Of James A. Garfield

A pouDd ofpluok is worth a ton ofluck. i he lifu and light of a naüon are inseparable. Be Ct íbr more than thc tliing you are now uoin?. I would rather be beatón in right than Mocead in wronp. The lesson of bistóty u rarely learned by tno aetons tbemselvea. Thines don't turu up in tliis world until foruebody turns them up. Héroes did nol make our libenios, tbey butrefleeted and illu.strated them. Growth is better than permanence, and permanent growth 3 bettor than a]]. VVc confront the dangers of suflrage by the bfamioga of universal education. . Luck isaníVí.s „„.,. Youmayfollow a to ruin, hut oever to suecess. Truth ia so related and corelated that no departtncnt of her reslm is wholly isolated. The tínion and the Congress must sharc me same late. Tliey must rise or fall to gether. An unoortain and fluctuating standard is an ovil wliose magnitude is too vast finmeaeureuient. Great ideas travel slowly and for a tiwu Doiaelessly; as tho goda whoso fect were sliod witli wool. Wo sliould cnlist both the pride and thc selfishness oí the people on thc sido ofgood order and peace. The democratie party nowliere raises any fjreat political questions, they only want to gct mto power. Mankind have been slow to believe that order reigns in the universo, that the world ia a cosmos, not a chaos. Coerción is the basis of every law in the UDiverge - human or J;-:... a i..„ ;„ ... law ivitQout coerción behind it. An uneertain currency that goes up and rtown, hits tlie Jaborer, and hits him hard. It helps him last and hurts him first H mattera little what may bo the forms ot nationa institutions, if the life, freodom and growth of' society are secured. The republican party ave to the country acurreocyas nationalas itsflag, basedunon the sacred faith of' the people, That man will be a benefactor of bis race who shall teach us how to manage rightly the first ycars of a child's education. it is as much the duty of all good men to protect and defend the reputation of worthy public -ervants as to detect public rascáis. Throughout thc wliole web of national existenco we trace the golden thread of man progress towanl a lngher and bctter estáte. The hope of our national peipetuity rests upon tbat perfect individua! freedoin wliicli shall forever keep up (he circuit of perpet ual chango. In a word, our national safety deroands (nat the fountains of politica! power shall bc made pure by intelligence and kopt puro by vigilance. There is deep down in the hearts of the American people a strong and abiding lovo ot our country which no surface storins of pasmón can every shake. The privilege of being a young man is a great privilege, and the privilege of growing up to bc au independent man in middle lite, is a greator. No man can make a speech alone. It is the great human power that strikes up from a tliousand minds that acts upon hiru and makes the speech. Sucoesafu] resumptiou wil! greatly aid in bnnging into the murky sky of our politics, wnat the signal service people cali "clearing weather. " if there be one (hing upon this earth that mankind love and admire botter than another, ït is a man who dares to look the dev; in the face and teil him that he is a dovil. We shall liever know why slavery dies so hard in this rcpublie and in this hall until we know why sin is so longlived and salan is immortal. -Speech in congressin JoO). _ Bad faith on the part of an individual, a city, or even a state, is a small cvil in comparison with the calamities which follow bad iaith on the part of a sovereign eovernment. In order to have any success in lif'e, or any worthy success, you must resolve to carry mto your work a fullncss of knowledge -not merely a sufficicncy, but more than a sumciency. We legislate for the people of the United btates, not for the whole world ; and ït is pur ilory that the Ameriean laborer s more intelligent and botter paid than his foreign competitor. I affirui, and I believc I do not misrepresent the great democratie party, that in the last sixteen years they have not ad vaneed one great national idea that is not exploded, and as dead as Julius C.-esar Weshoulddo nothing inconsistent with the spint and genius of our institutions. U o should do iiothingfor revengo, but overytinng forsecurity ; nothing for the past but overything for the present and the future. I fee] n profounder revcrence for a boy than for a man. I never meet a raggcd boy in the slrcet without feeling thatl may owe hima salute, for I know not whnt posHibihtie may bc buttonrd up under his ooat. The reasoo ihore is no gruat political conllict tilín (all ia becauso each party is firing at a mark, each in ts own way- the democratie party firing to the rear, and the republican party to ths front- Campaign speech, 1873. Young men talk of trustin to the spur ot the occasion. That trust is vain. Occasions cannnt make spurs. If you expect to ww s]mr.s you must win them. Ït you wish to u.se them you must bucklc them to your own hoela before you go into the iight. """ƒ i" ""cuiuioriauie, as i can tcstify ; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to bo tossed ovcrboard and compollcd to sink or swiui for hlmsett In all my cxperience I nevcr kncw a man to bc drowned who was worth the saving. We are bound by three givat reasons to maintaio the resuuiption of specie payment; First, becauso the sanctity of the public laith requires it ; second, becausc the material prospenty of the country dcniands it ; and third, becausc our future prosperity insists thatagitation xhall ceaso, and the country shall ünd a safe and permanent basis of unancial jicaot'. The world's history ia a divine poeui of wliich the bistoryof overy nation is a canto and overy man a word. lts strains havo been pealing alonp down the conturies, and tliough lliero have been minglcd tho discord.s uf warring cannon and dying men, yet to the Christian, pliilosopherand historian- tlio huinblc listener- there lias been a divino melody ranatsg through the song wliieli apeakl u hope and halcyon days tb come. Wlicn jou teil me that civil war is tlireatened by any party or state in this republic, you have given mn a supreme reason why an Amorican eongress should rofuse with unutterable scorn, to listen to thosc who threaten or do any act whatever under the coerción of threats by any power on earth. Witli all my soul I despiso your threat of tivil war, come I 'rom what (juartcr or party itmay. Brave men, certainly a brave na tion, will do nothing under compulsión. We are entrusted with thework of obeying iml defending tho oonstknttoB. I will not be deterrcd froin obeying it becausc sotoebody threatcns to dustroy it. I dismiss all that class of motives as unworthy of' '. icaDs.