Chauncey Depew Quotations

The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.

A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is one who hopes they are.

The government of the United States is and always has been a lawyer's government.

I get my exercise acting as a pallbearer to my friends who exercise.

The enjoyment of life would be instantly gone if you removed the possibility of doing something.

It is a pity that instead of the Pilgrim Fathers landing on Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock had not landed on the Pilgrim Fathers.

My dinners have never interfered with my business. They have been my recreation. . . A public banquet, if eaten with thought and care, is no more of a strain than a dinner at home.

It's pleasant to hear these nice words while I'm still alive. I'd rather have the taffy than the epitaphy.

"What is the most beautiful word in the language?" The elderly lawyer quickly replied: "Home."

There are millions of stories in the world, and several hundred of them good ones.

A witty illustration or an apt story will accomplish more than columns of argument.

If you will refrain from telling any lies about the Republican Party, I'lll promise not to tell the truth about the Democrats.

Blot out from the page of history the names of all the great actors of his time in the drama of nations, and preserve the name of Washington, and the century would be renowned.

When Franklin drew the lightning from the clouds, he little dreamed that in the evolution of science his discovery would illuminate the torch of Liberty for France and America. The rays from this beacon, lighting this gateway to the continent, will welcome the poor and the persecuted with the hope and promise of homes and citizenship.

I get my exercise acting as pallbearer to my friends who exercise.

Neither realism nor romance furnishes a more striking and picturesque figure than that of Christopher Columbus. The mystery about his origin heightens the charm of his story.

Force was the factor in the government of the world when Christ was born, and force was the source and exercise of authority both by Church and State when Columbus sailed from Palos. The Wise Men traveled from the East toward the West under the guidance of the Star of Bethlehem. The spirit of the equality of all men before God and the law moved westward from Calvary with its revolutionary influence upon old institutions, to the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus carried it westward across the seas.

The spirit of Columbus hovers over us to-day.

But the closer we study their lives, and the better we know their deeds, the more profound is our admiration and the greater our reverence for the Pilgrim fathers. Between the drafting of their immortal charter of liberty in the cabin of the Mayflower and the fruition of their principles in the power and majesty of the republic of the United States of to-day is but a span in the records of the word, and yet it is the most important and beneficent chapter in history. To be able to claim descent from them, either by birth or adoption, is to glory in kinship with God's nobility.

It was for Columbus, when the right hour struck, forced and propelled by this fresh life, to reveal the land where these new principles were to be brought, and where the awaited trial of the new civilization was to be made.

The walk downstairs to the breakfast table is excercise enough for any gentleman.

If we claim heritage in Bacon, Shakespeare and Milton, we also acknowledge that it was for liberties guaranteed Englishmen by sacred charters our fathers triumphantly fought. While wisely rejecting throne and caste and privilege and an Established Church in their new-born state, they adopted the substance of English liberty and the body of English law.

The tomb of the Saviour was a narrow and empty vault, precious only for its memories of the supreme tragedy of the centuries, but the new continent was to be the home and temple of the living God.

As for food, half of my friends have dug their graves with their teeth.

There have been many Presidents of the United States and the roll will be indefinitely extended. We have had a number of brilliant soldiers, but only one great general.

A pessimist is a man who thinks all women are bad. An optimist is a man who hopes they are.