The unrestricted competition so commonly advocated does not leave us the survival of the fittest. The unscrupulous succeed best in accumulating wealth.
Rutherford B. Hayes

To vote is like the payment of a debt, a duty never to be neglected, if its performance is possible.
Rutherford B. Hayes

Universal suffrage is sound in principle. The radical element is right.
Rutherford B. Hayes

Universal suffrage should rest upon universal education. To this end, liberal and permanent provision should be made for the support of free schools by the State governments, and, if need be, supplemented by legitimate aid from national authority.
Rutherford B. Hayes

Unjust attacks on public men do them more good than unmerited praise.
Rutherford B. Hayes

Virtue is defined to be mediocrity, of which either extreme is vice.
Rutherford B. Hayes

Wars will remain while human nature remains. I believe in my soul in cooperation, in arbitration; but the soldier's occupation we cannot say is gone until human nature is gone.
Rutherford B. Hayes

We are in a period when old questions are settled and the new are not yet brought forward. Extreme party action, if continued in such a time, would ruin the party. Moderation is its only chance. The party out of power gains by all partisan conduct of those in power.
Rutherford B. Hayes