William McKinley quotes

War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed. (William McKinley)
The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.
William McKinley
Our differences are policies; our agreements, principles.
William McKinley
Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.
William McKinley
We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is manifest destiny.
William McKinley
Expositions are the timekeepers of progress.
William McKinley
Our earnest prayer is that God will graciously vouchsafe prosperity, happiness, and peace to all our neighbors, and like blessings to all the peoples and powers of earth.
William McKinley
Illiteracy must be banished from the land if we shall attain that high destiny as the foremost of the enlightened nations of the world which, under Providence, we ought to achieve.
William McKinley
Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century.
William McKinley
Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people.
William McKinley
The American flag has not been planted on foreign soil to acquire more territory but for humanity's sake. (William McKinley)
In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest.
William McKinley
The ocean is not wide enough to hold all the sympathy that is streaming from the Old World to the New.
William McKinley
I am deeply affected by the news of the untimely death of President McKinley. I hasten to express the deepest and most heartfelt sympathy of the German people to the great American nation. Germany mourns with American for her noble son, who lost his life while he was fulfilling his duty to his country and people.
William McKinley
When I next realized that the Philippines had dropped into our laps I confess I did not know what to do with them ... And one night late it came to me this way...:.
William McKinley
When the history of his time is written he will stand forth as the great figure in the years which have been so crowded with events. He gained the entire confidence of the nation by his patriotism, wisdom and ability, just as he won its love by his kindness and goodness to all men.
William McKinley
I have been deeply shocked by this crime. President McKinley was not a ruler of exclusive or aristocratic tendencies. He was a good friend of the people, a genuine democrat in the best sense of the word. With regard to Mexico, President McKinley had ever evidenced such friendly sentiments that his death will be mourned in this country hardly less keenly than in the United States.
William McKinley
I learn with deep pain that his Excellency Mr. McKinley has succumbed to the deplorable attempt on his life. I sympathize with you with all my heart in this calamity which thus strikes at your dearest affections and which bereaves the great American nation of a President so justly respected and loved.
William McKinley
I have never been in doubt since I was old enough to think intelligently that I would someday be made president.
William McKinley
The free man cannot be long an ignorant man.
William McKinley
I could not have told where those damned islands were within 2,000 miles. (William McKinley)
That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime - to set an example - and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history.
William McKinley
We cannot gamble with anything so sacred as money.
William McKinley
Our past has gone into history.
William McKinley
that there was nothing left for us to do but to take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and uplift and civilize and Christianize them, and by God's grace do the very best we could by them, as our fellow-men for whom Christ also died.
William McKinley