Presidential Quotations | Page 6

The White House is a bully pulpit.

Boxing, jiu-jitsu, scaling the Matterhorn... I did cardio before cardio was cool.

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Conservation means development as much as it does protection.

To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular church, or because, like Abraham Lincoln, he has not avowed his allegiance to any church, is an outrage against the liberty of conscience, which is one of the foundations of American life.

No President has ever enjoyed himself as much as I?

Perhaps the most incapable Executive that ever filled the presidential chair...it would be difficult to imagine a man less fit to guide the state with honor and safety through the stormy times that marked the opening of the present century.

Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us.

The lack of power to take joy in outdoor nature is as real a misfortune as the lack of power to take joy in books

Every reform movement has a lunatic fringe.

Goods produced under conditions which do not meet a rudimentary standard to decency should be regarded as contraband and not allowed to pollute the channels of international commerce.

Freedom of conscience, of education, of speech, of assembly are among the very fundamentals of democracy and all of them would be nullified should freedom of the press ever be successfully challenged.

Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.

We can afford all that we need; but we can not afford all [that] we want.

In the field of world policy; I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor.

On both sides of the line, we are so accustomed to an undefended boundary three thousand miles long that we are inclined perhaps to minimize its vast importance, not only to our own continuing relations but also to the example which it sets to the other nations of the world.

The public schools shall be free from sectarian influences and, above all, free from any attitude of hostility to the adherents of any particular creed.

It is to the real advantage of every producer, every manufacturer and every merchant to cooperate in the improvement of working conditions, because the best customer of American industry is the well-paid worker.

No man who ever held the office of president would congratulate a friend on obtaining it.

I consider a decent respect for Christianity among the best recommendations for public service.

I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize man than any other nation.

A pen is certainly an excellent instrument to fix a man's attention and to inflame his ambition.

But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever.

I may not worry as much as Prime Minister Eshkol does about Israel, but I worry as deeply.

[The United States and Israel] share many common objectives ... chief of which is the building of a better world in which every nation can develop its resources and develop them in freedom and peace.

You ain't learnin' nothin' when you're talkin'.

I will not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your president.

Evil acts of the past are never rectified by evil acts of the present.

All I have I would have given gladly not to be standing here today.

Come now. let us reason together.

The crotch, down where your nuts hang, is always a little too tight.

You have your own difficulties. We watch, with friendly confidence in your capacity to merge differences in the grand dream of Canadian design.

Our partnership has been built on four pillars The first pillar is peace. The second pillar is freedom. The third pillar is respect. The fourth pillar is cooperation.

No nation in the world has had greater fortune than mine in sharing a continent with the people and the nation of Canada.

If government is to serve any purpose it is to do for others what they are unable to do for themselves.

...International education cannot be the work of one country. It is the responsibility and promise of all nations. It calls for free exchange and full collaboration...The knowledge of our citizens is one treasure which grows only when it is shared.

Every dollar released from taxation that is spared or invested will help create a new job and a new salary.

We have become more and more not a nation of athletes but a nation of spectators.

Just as I went into politics because Joe died, if anything happened to me tomorrow, my brother Bobby would run for my seat in the Senate. And if Bobby died, Teddy would take over for him.

If all of you had voted the other way - there's about 5500 of you here tonight - I would not be the President of the United States.

For I can assure you that we love our country, not for what it was, though it has always been great - not for what it is, though of this we are deeply proud - but for what it someday can, and, through the efforts of us all, someday will be.

But however close we sometimes seem to that dark and final abyss, let no man of peace and freedom despair. For he does not stand alone.

In seeking the help of the Congress and our countrymen, I pledged no easy answers. I pledged, and asked, only toil and dedication. These the Congress and the people have given in good measure.

'O God, thy sea is so great and my boat is so small.'

If I don't have a woman for three days, I get terrible headaches.

I have seen in many places housing which has been developed under government influences, but I have never seen any projects in which governments have played their part which have fountains and statues and grass and trees, which are as important to the concept of the home as the roof itself.

Our deep spiritual confidence that this nation will survive the perils of today - which may well be with us for decades to come - compels us to invest in our nation's future, to consider and meet our obligations to our children and the numberless generations that will follow.

Let us make it clear that we will never turn our backs on our steadfast friends in Israel, whose adherence to the democratic way must be admired by all friends of freedom.

We support the security of both Israel and her neighbors.

Je me sens vraiment entre amis. (I feel that I am truly among friends.)

Our alliance is born, not of fear, but of hope. It is an alliance that advances what we are for, as well as opposes what we are against.

The leadership of the American Legion has not had a constructive thought for the benefit of this country since 1918.

I have said that control of arms is a mission that we undertake particularly for our children and our grandchildren and that they have no lobby in Washington.

If the economy of today were operating close to capacity levels with little unemployment, or if a sudden change in our military requirements should cause a scramble for men and resources, then I would oppose tax reductions as irresponsible and inflationary; and I would not hesitate to recommend a tax increase if that were necessary.

Now let me make it clear that I believe there can only be one defense policy for the United States and that is summed up in the word 'first.' I do not mean first, but. I do not mean first, when. I do not mean first, if. I mean first -period.

If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live.

For one true measure of a nation is its success in fulfilling the promise of a better life for each of its members. Let this be the measure of our nation.

It's only when they join together in a forward movement that this country moves ahead...

Harry Truman once said, 'There are 14 or 15 million Americans who have the resources to have representatives in Washington to protect their interests, and that the interests of the great mass of the other people - the 150 or 160 million - is the responsibility of the president of the United States, and I propose to fulfill it.'

The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America.

Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts - including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state.

We can say with some assurance that, although children may be the victims of fate, they will not be the victims of our neglect.

Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future.

Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor.

The United States trades more with the province of Ontario alone than with Japan.

We're more than friends and neighbors and allies; we are kin, who together have built the most productive relationship between any two countries in the world today.

Doverey, no proverey - Trust but verify.

Trust the people -- that is the crucial lesson of history.

During my first press conference as president, in answer to a direct question, I pointed out that, as good Marxist-Leninists, the Soviet leaders have openly and publicly declared that the only morality they recognize is that which will further their cause, which is world revolution.

Delay is preferable to error.

I could think of no worse example for nations abroad, who for the first time were trying to put free electoral procedures into effect, than that of the United States wrangling over the results of our presidential election, and even suggesting that the presidency itself could be stolen by thievery at the ballot box.

Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.

I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.

Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.

He tells so many lies that he convinces himself after a while that he's telling the truth. He just doesn't recognize truth or falsehood.

As you know, the separation of church and state is not subject to discussion or alteration. Under our Constitution no church or religion can be supported by the U.S. Government. We maintain freedom of religion so that an American can either worship in the church of his choice or choose to go to no church at all.

You don't know how to lie. If you can't lie, you'll never go anywhere.

It has been said that Canada is bounded 'on the north by gold, on the west by the East, on the east by history - and on the south by friends'.* We hope that will always be the case and we hope it will be the case not only with respect to the United States, your immediate neighbor to the south, but with respect to all your southern neighbors - and ours - who are bound by the great forces of geography and history which are distinctive to the New World.

For among nations - as within nations - the soundest unity is that which respects diversity, and the strongest cohesion is that which rejects coercion.

Our peaceful borders and our peaceful history are important symbols, to be sure. What they symbolize, however, is the spirit of respect and restraint which allow us to cooperate, despite our differences, in way which help us both.

You know very well that whether you are on page one or page thirty depends on whether they fear you. It's as simple as that.

I like the job I have, but if I had to live my life over again, I would like to have ended up a sports writer.

What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will live in, whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes, is ours to determine by our actions and our choices.

Bring us together again.

The great silent majority.

Are you better off than you were four years ago? One of my favorite quotes Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores ... Is there more or less unemployment?

I heard one presidential candidate say that what this country needed was a president for the nineties. I was set to run again. I thought he said a president IN his nineties.

We the people tell the government what to do, it doesn't tell us.

If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he'll eat you last.

We are a nation that has a government-not the other way around. And that makes us special among the nations of the earth.

Millions of individuals making their own decisions in the marketplace will always allocate resources better than any centralized government planning process.

Admittedly, there is a risk in any course we follow other than this, but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face.

Governments don't control things. A government can't control the economy without controlling people.

It is the Soviet Union that runs against the tide of human history by denying human freedom and human dignity to its citizens.

If it takes a bloodbath, let's get it over with.

The Soviet Union is the focus of evil in the modern world.

Freedom prospers only where the blessings of God are avidly sought, and humbly accepted.

We establish no religion in this country. We command no worship. We mandate no belief, nor will we ever. Church and state are and must remain separate.

Of course nothing is ever done about a [presidential] commission report, except, they say, once a man at the state prison for the criminally insane actually read one once clear through. Then he did something about it. He made a bonfire that lasted a week.