“La historia de la libertad es la de la lucha por limitar el poder del gobierno.”
Fuente: [Señor] (1997), p. 327.
Thomas Woodrow Wilson fue un político y abogado estadounidense, vigésimo octavo Presidente de los Estados Unidos, asumiendo el cargo desde 1913 a 1921. Llevó a cabo una política exterior intervencionista en Iberoamérica y neutral en la Gran Guerra hasta 1917. Su entrada en el bando denominado Triple Entente inclinó la victoria de este lado. En enero de 1918 expuso sus famosos catorce puntos para asegurar la paz en Europa y el mundo. Participó en la Conferencia de París y fue premio Nobel de la Paz en 1919 como impulsor de la Sociedad de Naciones.
Hijo del reverendo presbiteriano Joseph Ruggles Wilson y Janet Mary Woodrow. A pesar de padecer dislexia, consiguió graduarse en 1879 para entrar después en la Universidad de Virginia, donde estudió Derecho.
“La historia de la libertad es la de la lucha por limitar el poder del gobierno.”
Fuente: [Señor] (1997), p. 327.
“El carácter se produce en el gran laboratorio diario del deber.”
Fuente: [Señor] (1997), p. 122.
Discursos
Original: «Since trade ignores national boundaries and the manufacturer insists on having the world as a market, the flag of his nation must follow him, and the doors of the nations which are closed must be battered down... Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process. Colonies must be obtained or planted, in order that no useful corner of the world may be overlooked or left unused».
Fuente: Conferencia en la Universidad de Columbia del 15 de abril de 1907. [ref. insuficiente]
“Dios creó al mundo y, para gobernarlo, a los Estados Unidos.”
Fuente: La filosofía de Woodrow Wilson http://www.historicas.unam.mx/publicaciones/revistas/moderna/vols/ehmc11/142.pdf.
— Woodrow Wilson, Congressional Government
Congressional Government, A Study in American Politics (1885; republished 1981), chapter 2, p. 69 (1981)
1880s
“We have stood apart, studiously neutral.”
Message to Congress (7 December 1915)
1910s
Statement on the successful filibuster by anti-war Senators against a bill to arm merchant ships (4 March 1917)
1910s
Reported as a misattribution in Paul F. Boller, Jr., and John George, They Never Said It: A Book of Fake Quotes, Misquotes, & Misleading Attributions (1989), p. 131-32; Boller and George note that Wilson was so fond of quoting this limerick that others thought he had written it. In fact, it was written by a minor poet named Anthony Euwer, and conveyed to Wilson by his daughter Eleanor.
Misattributed
“America cannot be an ostrich with its head in the sand.”
Speech at Des Moines (1 February 1916)
1910s
Preface, p. vii http://books.google.com/books?id=MW8SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PP11&dq=%22I+have+not+written%22
1910s, The New Freedom (1913)
“Conservatism is the policy of making no changes and consulting your grandmother when in doubt.”
Attributed by Raymond B. Fosdick in Report of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, 1963, p. 49 http://books.google.com/books?id=EqE8AAAAIAAJ&q=%22consulting+your+grandmother+when+in+doubt%22&dq=%22consulting+your+grandmother+when+in+doubt%22&hl=en&ei=fJ-HTJ33MYL58AaTqZyOAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAg
1910s
1910s, Address to Congress on War (1917)
Speech in New York (23 May 1912)
1910s
From a letter to Mary A. Hulbert (21 September 1913)
1910s
Section VIII: “Monopoly, Or Opportunity?”, p. 185 http://books.google.com/books?id=MW8SAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA185&dq=%22A+great+industrial+nation%22. Note that this remark has been used as the basis for a fake quotation discussed below.
1910s, The New Freedom (1913)
Contexto: A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which their own money is involved and who necessarily, by very reason of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine economic freedom. This is the greatest question of all, and to this statesmen must address themselves with an earnest determination to serve the long future and the true liberties of men.
“There is such thing as a man being too proud to fight.”
Address to Foreign-Born Citizens (10 May 1915)
1910s
Campaign speech in Chicago (6 April 1912)
1910s
1910s, Address to Congress: Analyzing German and Austrian Peace Utterances (1918)
“The way to stop financial joy-riding is to arrest the chauffeur, not the automobile.”
The Atlanta Constitution (14 January 1914), p. 1 http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/ajc_historic/access/549848262.html?dids=549848262:549848262&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&date=Jan+14,+1914&author=&pub=The+Atlanta+Constitution&desc=STOP+THE+%22JOY+RIDING%22+BY+ARRESTING+CHAUFFEUR+AND+NOT+THE+AUTOMOBILE&pqatl=google
1910s
“If you think too much about being re-elected, it is very difficult to be worth re-electing.”
Rededication and restoration of Congress Hall http://books.google.com/books?id=w0IOAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA30&dq=%22If+you+think+too+much%22, Philadelphia (25 October 1913)
1910s
First Inaugural Address http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=25831 (4 March 1913)
1910s
Fuente: 1880s, "The Study of Administration," 1887, p. 203; as cited in: Dimock (1937;28)
Speech in New York City (9 September 1912)
1910s
“You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality.”
Address on Latin American Policy before the Southern Commercial Congress http://books.google.com/books?id=_VYEIml1cAkC&q=%22You+cannot+be+friends+upon+any+other+terms+than+upon+the+terms+of+equality%22&pg=PA19#v=onepage Mobile, Alabama (27 October 1913)
1910s
Fuente: 1900s, A History of the American People, Vol. 9 (1902), p. 82
Speech on Military Preparedness, Pittsburgh (29 January 1916)
1910s
“The only reason I read a book is because I cannot see and converse with the man who wrote it.”
Speech in Kansas City (12 May 1905), PWW (The Papers of Woodrow Wilson) 16:99
Unsourced variant: I would never read a book if it were possible for me to talk half an hour with the man who wrote it.
1900s
“The Meaning of a Liberal Education”, Address to the New York City High School Teachers Association (9 January 1909)
1900s
Section VI: “Let There Be Light”, p. 36 (Note: different pagination from other references here) http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=1497285&pageno=36
1910s, The New Freedom (1913)
“Armed neutrality, it now appears, is impracticable.”
1910s, Address to Congress on War (1917)
Attributed in Shadow Kings (2005) by Mark Hill, p. 91; This and similar remarks are presented on the internet and elsewhere as an expression of regret for creating the Federal Reserve. The quotation appears to be fabricated from out-of-context remarks Wilson made on separate occasions:
I have ruined my country.
Attributed by Curtis Dall in FDR: My Exploited Father-in-Law, regarding Wilson's break with Edward M. House: "Wilson … evidenced similar remorse as he approached his end. Finally he said, 'I am a most unhappy man. Unwittingly I have ruined my country.'"
A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit.…
"Monopoly, Or Opportunity?" (1912), criticizing the credit situation before the Federal Reserve was created, in The New Freedom (1913), p. 185
We have come to be one of the worst ruled… Governments….
"Benevolence, Or Justice?" (1912), also in The New Freedom (1913), p. 201
The quotation has been analyzed in Andrew Leonard (2007-12-21), " The Unhappiness of Woodrow Wilson https://www.salon.com/2007/12/21/woodrow_wilson_federal_reserve/" Salon:
I can tell you categorically that this is not a statement of regret for having created the Federal Reserve. Wilson never had any regrets for having done that. It was an accomplishment in which he took great pride.
John M. Cooper, professor of history and author of several books on Wilson, as quoted by Andrew Leonard
Misattributed
Defending the re-segregation of federal offices, in Conference with members of the National Association for Equal Rights https://web.archive.org/web/20150315002852/http://friesian.com/presiden.htm#43 (November 1914)
1910s