Quote#Wisdom
Promises may not be kept, plighted faith may be broken, and vaunted…
Quote byJames A. Garfield · 1831–1881
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Speech at Arlington Cemetery, Decoration Day (30 May 1868).
English (original)
Promises may not be kept, plighted faith may be broken, and vaunted virtue be only the cunning mask of vice. We do not know one promise these men made, one pledge they gave, one word they spoke: but we do know they summed up and perfected, by one supreme act, the highest virtues of men and citizens.
— James A. Garfield
More from James A. Garfield
The worst days of darkness through which I have ever passed have been greatly alleviated by throwing myself with all my energy into some work relating to others.
I would rather be beaten in Right than succeed in Wrong.
Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself,— that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.
Poverty is uncomfortable, as I can testify; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim for himself.
Let us not commit ourselves to the absurd and senseless dogma that the color of the skin shall be the basis of suffrage, the talisman of liberty.
I believe in God, and I trust myself in His hands.