Stephen Samuel Wise

“The true test of a civilization is, not the census, nor the size of cities, nor the crops, but the kind of man that the country turns out.”

“There is a higher law than the law of government. That's the law of conscience.”

“Vision looks inward and becomes duty. Vision looks outward and becomes aspiration. Vision looks upward and becomes faith.”

“I am not an American citizen of the Jewish faith. I am a Jew.”

“It is the spiritual unity of purpose and ideals which sanctifies a nation.”

“No man is good enough to be another man's master.”

“The measure of a man's life is the well-spending of it, and not the length.”

“Equanimity is the gem of the soul, which is not found in the treasuries of kings.”

“What is a nation? It is a spiritual principle, resulting from the profound complications of history, a spiritual family, not a group determined by the configuration of the earth.”

“We cannot have a world half free and half slave. We cannot have a world half civilized and half barbarian.”

“When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I'm beginning to believe it.”

“Zionism is the magnificent attempt to find a home for the homeless and a country for the countryless.”

“The Jew is at once the vessel and the content of an age-old and timeless idea.”