US Presidency
1913

With this vision we approach new affairs. Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good, to purify andhumanize every process of our common life without weakening or sentimentalizingit. There has been something crude and heartless and unfeeling in our hasteto succeed and be great. Our thought has been Let every man look out forhimself, let every generation look out for itself, while we reared giantmachinery which made it impossible that any but those who stood at thelevers of control should have a chance to look out for themselves. We hadnot forgotten our morals. We remembered well enough that we had set upa policy which was meant to serve the humblest as well as the most powerful, with an eye single to the standards of justice and fair play, and rememberedit with pride. But we were very heedless and in a hurry to be great. We have come now to the sober second thought. The scales of heedlessnesshave fallen from our eyes.