This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. When the loyal opposition dies, I think the soul of America dies with it.

Those who give up essential liberties for temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.

A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within.

The penalty good men and women pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

I am concerned for the security of our great nation, not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.

Because it is so unbelievable, the Truth often escapes being known.

This act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth... When the President signs this act the invisible government by the money power, proven to exist by the Money Trust investigation, will be legalized...

This is the Aldrich Bill in disguise...

The new law will create inflation whenever the trusts want inflation...

Despite my views about the value to society of greater publicity for the affairs of corporations, there was an occasion, near the close of 1910, when I was as secretive -- indeed as furtive -- as any conspirator.

I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our secret expedition to Jekyl Island as the occasion of the actual conception of what eventually became the Federal Reserve System.
...
Discovery, we knew, simply must not happen, or else all our time and effort would be waste. If it were to be exposed publicly that our particular group had got together and written a banking bill, that bill would have no chance whatever of passage by Congress.