Stephen Samuel Wise

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

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

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

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