Woodrow Wilson Quotes

“It's been the same story ever since I can remember, ever since Wilson – the Republicans don't do a thing for the little man.”
― John Updike, Rabbit Redux

“Had all the world been a school and Wilson its principal, he would have been the greatest statesman in history.”
― Barbara W. Tuchman, The Zimmermann Telegram

“No man can rationally live, worship, or love his neighbour on an empty stomach.”
― Woodrow Wilson, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Vol. 1

“Woodrow Wilson has just made the decision to take part in World War I. What was he feeling then? Did he know the possible outcomes of his decision? Did he feel the burden of American lives on his shoulders? He probably said something like: "Goddamn. I love America but this could be the worst decision in American history." Don't worry yourself Woody, it wasn't.”
― Zachary Crosby, Stories and Poetry from the Beyond

“The spacious philanthropy which [President Woodrow Wilson] exhaled upon Europe stopped quite sharply at the coasts of his own country.”
― Winston Churchill

“[And conversely, Woodrow Wilson finishes dead last.]
Yes [...] I think World War I was avoidable for the United States, certainly; we kind of look back on Germany as being 'evil' (because of World War II), but back in World War I it was much more ambiguous who was at fault - and the allies, including our French and British allies and the Russians also were at fault - and after World War I there was a revulsion because the Bolsheviks released their correspondences with Britain and France: Britain and France were trying to grab colonies, and so the American people said, 'We were fighting...we lost all these people in this massive war just to help these people grab territory?' So there was a revulsion at that time; we don't hear that now because we're distant from it.

Woodrow Wilson has been elevated as one of the better presidents but I think if you go back and look at it, the war was avoidable...and of course Woodrow Wilson helped bring Hitler to power by insisting on the abdication of the Kaiser after World War I - which was totally unnecessary. Germany was a constitutional monarchy before the war, and was vilified. It was actually the most aggressive state in Europe [...] and there were many things wrong with the Kaiser's personality, but I think Germany is unnecessarily vilified for that war.”
― Ivan Eland

“One German-American friend of mine, an architectural historian my own age, can be counted on to excoriate Woodrow Wilson after he has had several strong drinks. He goes on to say that it was Wilson who persuaded this country that it was patriotic to be stupid, to be proud of knowing only one language, of believing that all other cultures were inferior and ridiculous, offensive to God and common sense alike, that artists and teachers and studious persons in general were ninnies when it came to dealing with problems in life that really mattered, and on and on.

This friend says that it was a particular misfortune for this country that the German-Americans had achieved such eminence in the arts and education when it was their turn to be scorned from on high. To hate all they did and stood for at that time, which included gymnastics, by the way, was to lobotomize not only the German-Americans but our culture.

"That left American football," says my German-American friend, and someone is elected to drive him home.”
― Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

“President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, re-segregated several federal agencies, and screened the first movie ever shown at the White House, the racist movie 'Birth of a Nation', originally titled 'The Klansman'.”
― Horace Cooper, How Trump Is Making Black America Great Again: The Untold Story of Black Advancement in the Era of Trump

“United States President Wilson, guided by a simplistic ideology, wanted to eradicate "imperialism". He wrote a 14-point regulation specifying that the Allies were not allowed to keep any territory they had conquered by arms from the Germans, neither in Europe nor in Africa.”
― André-Bernard Ergo, Congo belge: La colonie assassinée