William McKinley

Business life, whether among ourselves or with other people, is even a sharp struggle for success. It will be none the less so in the future. 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, (1901).

Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people.
~ William McKinley, (1898).

Good-bye -- good bye, all. It is God's way. His will, not ours, be done. Nearer my God to Thee, nearer to Thee.
~ William McKinley (Last words before death; 14 September 1901)

I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform.
~ William McKinley

I do not prize the word "cheap." It is not a badge of honor. It is a symbol of despair. Cheap prices make for cheap goods; cheap goods make for cheap men; and cheap men make for a cheap country.
~ William McKinley

I have already transmitted to Congress the report of the naval court of inquiry on the destruction of the battleship Maine in the harbor of Havana during the night of the fifteenth of February. The destruction of that noble vessel has filled the national heart with inexpressible horror. Two hundred and fifty-eight brave sailors and marines and two officers of our Navy, reposing in the fancied security of a friendly harbor, have been hurled to death, grief and want brought to their homes and sorrow to the nation.
~ William McKinley

I have been through one war. I have seen the dead piled up, and I do not want to see another.
~ William McKinley, (1898).

I have never been in doubt since I was old enough to think intelligently that I would someday be made president..
~ William McKinley

If Old Dewey had just sailed away when he smashed the Spanish fleet, what a lot of trouble he would have saved us (On taking possession of the Philippines).
~ William McKinley

In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest.
~ 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

My wife, be careful, Cortelyou, how you tell her -- oh, be careful.
~ William McKinley, Spoken to his personal secretary, George B. Cortelyou (when shot by an assassin and suspecting that he would die, 6 September 1901)

Our differences are politics, our agreements principles.
~ William McKinley

Our flag expresses more than any other flag; it means more than any other national emblem. It expresses the will of a free people, and proclaims that they are supreme and that they acknowledge no earthly sovereign but themselves . . . Glorious old banner!
~ William McKinley, Speech Delivered at the Dedication of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Cleveland OH (4 July 1894). American Patriotism

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, Comment to George B. Cortelyou in Cortelyou Diary (29 December 1899)

The free man cannot be long an ignorant man.
~ William McKinley, Address at Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh PA (3 November 1897).

The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.
~ William McKinley, Letter (21 December 1898).

The people against the bosses.
~ William McKinley, Campaign Slogan, Presidential Election of 1896.

Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law. It is sometimes sneeringly said by those who do not like free government, that here we count heads. True, heads are counted, but brains also. And the general sense of 63 millions of free people is better and safer than the sense of an favored few, born to nobility and ruling by inheritance.
~ William McKinley, (1891).

We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is Manifest Destiny.
~ William McKinley, (1898)