Quotes by William McKinley

• The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.
• I have never been in doubt since I was old enough to think intelligently that I would someday be made president.
• Expositions are the timekeepers of progress.
• Cuba ought to be free and independent, and the government should be turned over to the Cuban people.
• I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform.
• We need Hawaii just as much and a good deal more than we did California. It is Manifest Destiny.
• Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war.
• Our differences are policies; our agreements, principles.
• That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime - to set an example - and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history.
• In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest.
• The free man cannot be long an ignorant man.
• War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.