James Buchanan

To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute.

If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.

The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men.

I like the noise of democracy.

What is right and what is practicable are two different things.