"What defines a people is not race, not tradition, not geography, but the free choice of a group of human beings to live together as fellow citizens."

"Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage."

"The introduction of the Christian religion into the world has produced an incalculable change in history. There had previously been only a history of nations — there is now a history of mankind; and the idea of an education of human nature as a whole, — an education the work of Jesus Christ Himself — is become like a compass for the historian, the key of history, and the hope of nations."

"I know three things must always be To keep a nation strong and free. One is a hearthstone bright and dear, With busy, happy loved ones near. One is a ready heart and hand To love, and serve, and keep the land. is a worn and beaten way where the people go to pray. long as these are kept alive, Nation and people will survive. God keep them always, everywhere— The home, the heart, the place of prayer."

"I propose the following definition of the nation: it is an imagined political community."

"Nations, like men, have their infancy."

"Happy are all free peoples, too strong to be dispossessed. But blessed are those among nations who dare to be strong for the rest!"

"If we're an arrogant nation, they'll resent us. If we're a humble nation, but strong, they'll welcome us."

"The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation."

"Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world, and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together."