9 Rutherford B. Hayes Quotes on Society

Rutherford B. Hayes quotes on society

15. Is there anything in which the people of this age and country differ more from those of other lands and former times than in this - their ability to preserve order and protect rights without the aid of government? ... We are realizing the paradox, 'that country is governed best which is governed least.' I no longer fear lynch law. Let the people be intelligent and good, and I am not sure but their impulsive, instinctive verdicts and sentences and executions, unchecked by the rules and technicalities of law, are more likely to be according to substantial justice than the decisions of courts and juries.

34. 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.

35. Every age has its temptations, its weaknesses, its dangers. Ours is in the line of the snobbish and the sordid.

38. I am not liked as a President by the politicians in office, in the press, or in Congress. But I am content to abide the judgment - the sober second thought - of the people.

39. General education is the best preventive of the evils now most dreaded. In the civilized countries of the world, the question is how to distribute most generally and equally the property of the world. As a rule, where education is most general the distribution of property is most general.... As knowledge spreads, wealth spreads. To diffuse knowledge is to diffuse wealth. To give all an equal chance to acquire knowledge is the best and surest way to give all an equal chance to acquire property.

55. The sacred obligation to the Union soldiers must not - will not be forgotten nor neglected.... But those who fought against the Nation cannot and do not look to it for relief.... Confederate soldiers and their descendants are to share with us and our descendants the destiny of America. Whatever, therefore, we their fellow citizens can do to remove burdens from their shoulders and to brighten their lives is surely in the pathway of humanity and patriotism.

57. Abolish plutocracy if you would abolish poverty. As millionaires increase, pauperism grows. The more millionaires, the more paupers.

58. The progress of society is mainly ... the improvement in the condition of the workingmen of the world.

64. One of the tests of the civilization of people is the treatment of its criminals.