Background Image

...

I Am Not Here As A Public Official, But As A Citizen Of A Troubled World Who Finds Hope In A Growing Consensus That The Generally Accepted Goals Of Society Are Peace, Freedom, Human Rights, Environmental Quality, The Alleviation Of Suffering, And The Rule Of Law.

-Jimmy Carter

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Am Not Here

Jimmy Carter

...

I Am Not Here As A Public Official, But As A Citizen Of A Troubled World Who Finds Hope In A Growing Consensus That The Generally Accepted Goals Of Society Are Peace, Freedom, Human Rights, Environmental Quality, The Alleviation Of Suffering, And The Rule Of Law.

Views: 5

Topic

More From Jimmy Carter

The Evidence Shows That Investing In Women And Girls Delivers Major Benefits For Society. An Educated Woman Has Healthier Children. She Is More Likely To Send Them To School. She Earns More And Invests What She Earns In Her Family.

When Your Troops Go To War, The Prime Minister Or The President Change Overnight From An Administrator, Dealing With Taxation And Welfare And Health And Deteriorating Roads, Into The Commander-in-chief. And It's Just Become Almost Unpatriotic To Describe Bush's Fallacious And Ill-advised And Mistaken And Sometimes Misleading Actions.

It's Abominable, And It's A Disgrace To A Great Democracy To See What's Happened In Our Country. The Main Reason For That Has Been The Enormous Infusion Of High Quantities Of Money To Campaigns - Governors, Congress, President And The U.s. Senate.

This Intolerable Dependence On Foreign Oil Threatens Our Economic Independence And The Very Security Of Our Nation. The Energy Crisis Is Real. It Is Worldwide. It Is A Clear And Present Danger To Our Nation. These Are Facts And We Simply Must Face Them.

"solid Wastes" Are The Discarded Leftovers Of Our Advanced Consumer Society. This Growing Mountain Of Garbage And Trash Represents Not Only An Attitude Of Indifference Toward Valuable Natural Resources, But Also A Serious Economic And Public Health Problem.

My Faith Has Helped Me To Adjust To Life Whether I Was A Small Farm Boy, A Submarine Officer, Governor, President Or An Ex-president. I've Tried To Remember The Teaching That We Have To Accommodate Change We Can't Control In Our Lives, Whether It's Disappointment, Sorrow, Loss Or Failure, While Simultaneously Clinging To Principles That Never Change.

I First Came Into The Labor Force In 1941 When The Minimum Wage Was 40 Cents An Hour, And That Was My First Job. And Each Time That We've Tried To Boost The Lower Level Of Salary For The Most Underpaid Workers, There Have Been Predictions Of Catastrophe. But Each Time, In [m]y Opinion, The Change Has Helped Our Nation And Its Economic Strength.

I Wish I Had Known When I Was In The White House What I Know Now About The Third World.

When Men In Secular Life, Who Might Be Religious Or Not, See Women Being Treated As Secondary In The Eyes Of God, They Assume That It's Ok For Them To Do It.

Our Income Tax System Is A Disgrace To The Human Race.

My Proudest Accomplishment Was That I Never Dropped A Bomb, Fired A Bullet, Or Shot A Missile.

I Say To You Quite Frankly That The Time For Racial Discrimination Is Over.

I Thought A Lot About Our Nation And What I Should Do As President. And Sunday Night Before Last, I Made A Speech About Two Problems Of Our Countryenergy And Malaise.

We Have A Tendency To Condemn People Who Are Different From Us, To Define Their Sins As Paramount And Our Own Sinfulness As Being Insignificant.

I Have A Very Personal Relationship With Jesus Christ. It Doesn't Depend On The Fact That He Can Walk On Water.

I Obviously Hoped That Everything That I Found Would Make A Difference. It Ended Up Being Way Behind My Wildest Dreams.

Making A Difference

I've Just Finished My 20th Book This Past Year And I'm Working On My 21st Book About The Middle East Right Now That I'll Finish This Year. And I Get Up Early In The Morning And When I Get Tired Of The Computer And Tired Of Doing Research, I Walk 20 Steps Out To My Woodshop And I Either Build Furniture Or Paint Paintings. I'm An Artist Too.

On Both Of My Major Trips To North Korea, The Leaders Of The Country Made It Plain That They Want To Make Progress Towards Doing Away With Nuclear Weapons And Towards Ending The Longstanding, Official State Of War Which Persists Between North Korea And The United States And South Korea, A War Which Has Continued Since The Ceasefire Over Fifty Years Ago. That Sort Of Thing Happens Quite Often When We Meet With People Who Are Kind Of International Outcasts With Whom The Government Of The United States Won't Meet.

Being Confident Of Our Own Future, We Are Now Free Of That Inordinate Fear Of Communism Which Once Led Us To Embrace Any Dictator Who Joined Us In That Fear. I'm Glad That That's Being Changed.

We Have No Desire To Be The World's Policeman. But America Does Want To Be The World's Peacemaker.

This Afternoon, I've Arranged For This Ceremony To Be Illuminated By Solar Power.

No Poor, Rural, Weak, Or Black Person Should Ever Again Have To Bear The Additional Burden Of Being Deprived Of The Opportunity For An Education, A Job, Or Simple Justice.

The Existing And Long-standing Use Of The Word 'evolution' In Our State's Textbooks Has Not Adversely Affected Georgians' Belief In The Omnipotence Of God As Creator Of The Universe, There Can Be No Incompatibility Between Christian Faith And Proven Facts Concerning Geology, Biology, And Astronomy. There Is No Need To Teach That Stars Can Fall Out Of The Sky And Land On A Flat Earth In Order To Defend Our Religious Faith.

A Country Will Have Authority And Influence Because Of Moral Factors, Not Its Military Strength; Because It Can Be Humble And Not Blatant And Arrogant; Because Our People Want To Serve Others And Not Dominate Others. And A Nation Without Morality Will Soon Lose Its Influence Around The World.

One Of The Surprising Things That Brezhnev Said When We Were In Our Talks, Was - When I Proposed That We Make These Changes In Nuclear Weaponry, He Said, "god Will Never Forgive Us If We Don't Succeed." And, You Know, Coming From The Leader Of An Atheistic Communist Country, This Surprised Everyone.

I'd Like To Be Remembered As Someone Who Was A Champion Of Peace And Human Rights.

I Think The Only Way That Political System Can Be Corrected Is For The American People To See Very Vividly That It Needs Repair. If Things Are Going To Worse In The Future, The American People, In Every Congressional District In The Land, Might Demand That Reforms Take Place In The Political System.

And I'm Asking You For Your Good And For Your Nation's Security To Take No Unnecessary Trips, To Use Carpools Or Public Transportation Whenever You Can, To Park Your Car One Extra Day Per Week, To Obey The Speed Limit, And To Set Your Thermostats To Save Fuel. Every Act Of Energy Conservation Like This Is More Than Just Common Sense-i Tell You It Is An Act Of Patriotism.

When People Are Intimidated About Having Their Own Opinions, Oppression Is At Hand.

When I Feel Something Very Intensely Or Deeply Or Personally, I Can Go To Extremes Of Self-expression Or Self-analysis By Writing A Poem - More Than I Can Just Talking To Somebody Or Writing Prose.

I Had Very Good Support From Democrats And Republicans All Throughout My Administration. I Had A Very High Batting Average. We Added More Jobs Per Year In My Four Years Than Any Other President Since The Second World War.

It Would Be Almost Politically Suicidal For Members Of Congress To Espouse A Balanced Position Between Israel And Palestine, To Suggest That Israel Comply With International Law Or To Speak In Defense Of Justice Or Human Rights For Palestinians. If They Did So, They Couldn't Be Reelected.

Jesus Never Mentions Abortion. But I Think That Jesus Did Care For The Unborn Child, I Think That Jesus Did Care For People Who Were Completely Helpless, Who Depend On Others For Their Life And Livelihood. I Just Believe That This Should Be Minimized If Possible.

Standing Alone Among Great Democratic Nations In Imposing The Death Penalty Is Another Moral Decision That Americansare Being Forced To Confront.

I Have A Lot Of Pleasures But I Don't Feel Guilty About Them.

The United States Is Squandering International Prestige And Goodwill And Intensifying Global Anti-american Terrorism By Unofficially Condoning Or Abetting The Israeli Confiscation And Colonization Of Palestinian Territories.

I See A Lot Of Parallels Between My Candidacy And The Tea Party. I Would Not Have Been Elected Had There Not Been A Tremendous Amount Of Dissatisfaction And Discouragement And Disgust With What Was Going On In Washington.

The Heart And Mind Of Every Muslim Is Affected By Whether Or Not The Israel-palestine Issue Is Dealt With Fairly.

I Believe There Is Complete Equality Between Men And Women. And I Believe Those Passages In The New Testament, Not By Jesus, But By Paul, That Say Women Should Not Adorn Themselves, They Should Always Wear Hats Or Color Their Hair In Church - Things Like That - I Think They Are Signs Of The Times And Should Not Apply To Modern-day Life.

When You Invade Grenada, Or When You Invade Panama To Capture A Disreputable Person, Or When You Bomb The Bosnia Area, You Can Always Find Justification For Those Military Actions, But It's Really Surprising How Many Times In Those 25 Years - That's A Long Time - The United States Has Interceded, I Wouldn't Say Most Of The Time Militarily, But A Lot Of Those Have Been Military Actions.

I'm Not A Mediator Or A Negotiator. I Don't Want To Be One.

I'm Much More Introspective Than I Was, Say, Thirty Years Ago.

There Was Never Any Question About The Morality Of Hunting, But Neither Was There Any Acceptance Of Killing For The Sake Of A Trophy.

I Think That The Best Approach Would Be If The American People Ever Insist That We Cut Down On The Massive Amounts Of Money That Moves Into The Campaigns From Special Interest Groups, And If We Resist Publicly By Saying "no More Negative Advertisements That Destroy The Reputations Of One's Opponents." In The Meantime, Just Don't Pay Any Attention To Negative Ads, If You Can Avoid Them, And Try To Focus On The Issues.

I Thought Then And I Think Now That The Invasion Of Iraq Was Unnecessary And Unjust And I Think The Premises On Which It Was Launched Were False.

Building Confidence And Constructive Relations Between Sudan And South Sudan Is Urgent

One Of The Turning Points Of My Life Was When I Got My First Bait-casting Outfit.

America Did Not Invent Human Rights. In A Very Real Sense Human Rights Invented America.

The Carter Center Has The Only Existing International Taskforce On Disease Eradication. Which Means A Total Elimination Of A Disease On The Face Of The Earth. In The History Of The World, There's Only Been One Disease Eradicated: Smallpox. The Second Disease, I Think, Is Gonna Be Guinea Worm.

In The Bible Homosexuality Is Condemned, But Along With Divorce And Greed And Callousness Toward Poor People. So Its Elevation To A Highest Priority Among Some Religious Groups Has Been Very Disturbing To Me.

There Is No Other Even Moderately Equal Abuse Than The Murder Of Little Baby Girls - Nothing Else Compares With That, In Horror.

Since I Was 18 Years Old, I Have Taught The Bible. For The Last Fifteen Or Twenty Years, I Have Taught Every Sunday When I Was Home Or Near My Own House, So That Would Be 35 Or 40 Times Per Year. Half Of Those Sundays, The Text Comes From The Hebrew Bible. I Have Had A Deep Personal Interest In The Holy Land And In The Teachings Of The Hebrew People. God Has A Special Position For The Jewish People, The Hebrews, Or Whatever. I Know The Difference Between Ancient Israel And Judaea, And I Know The History. I Don't Have Any Problem With The Jewish People.

During The 1960s, We Used Twice As Much Oil As During The 1950s. And In Each Of Those Decades, More Oil Was Consumed Than In All Of Mankind's Previous History.

One Of The Most Serious Problems That Our Country Has Inherited An Unwillingness To Talk To Anyone Who Disagrees With Us Or Who Won't Accept, Before A Discussion, All The Premises That We Demand.

Unless Both Sides Win, No Agreement Can Be Permanent.

We Believe In Separation Of Church And State, That There Should Be No Unwarranted Influence On The Church Or Religion By The State, And Vice Versa.

I Think The Bible Is Completely Inspired By God In Its Overall Messages. But, For The People Of Those Days To Know What Was Going To Happen 4,000 Years Later In A World Of Astronomy Or Subatomic Particles. They Didn't Have Access To The Knowledge That We Presently Have About Geology. So, We Know Now That The World Was Created Many Of Billions Of Years Ago, 13 Or 14 Billion Years Ago. As Far As They Knew, The Earth Was The Center Of The Universe. They Thought That Stars Were Little Twinkling Things In The Sky Where As Now We Know Stars Are Very Distant And Much Larger Than The Earth.

Because We Are Free, We Can Never Be Indifferent To The Fate Of Freedom Elsewhere.

Israel's Continued Control And Colonization Of Palestinian Land Have Been The Primary Obstacles To A Comprehensive Peace Agreement In The Holy Land.

You Can Not Divorce Religious Belief And Public Service. I've Never Detected Any Conflict Between God's Will And My Political Duty. If You Violate One, You Violate The Other.

We Only Have To Recall The Color Of The Faces Of Those Who Were Most Devastated By Katrina, To Know That There Are Not Yet Equal Opportunities For All Americans.

This Is The First National Administration We've Ever Seen Where The Housewife Couldn't Afford To Buy Groceries And The Farmer Couldn't Afford To Grow Them.

I Think It Was Fully Justified After 9/11 To Initiate A Military Action Against Afghanistan, Because We Hoped To Create A Democracy, And Have A Flourishing Economy, And To Do Away With Al-qaida, And To Capture Osama Bin Laden.

I Believe That Anyone Can Be Successful In Life, Regardless Of Natural Talent Or The Environment Within Which We Live. This Is Not Based On Measuring Success By Human Competitiveness For Wealth, Possessions, Influence, And Fame, But Adhering To God's Standards Of Truth, Justice, Humility, Service, Compassion, Forgiveness, And Love.

The Bond Of Our Common Humanity Is Stronger Than The Divisiveness Of Our Fears And Prejudices.

Common Humanity

And I Think The Almost Undeviating Support By Great Britain For The Ill-advised Policies Of President Bush In Iraq Have Been A Major Tragedy For The World.

War May Sometimes Be A Necessary Evil. But No Matter How Necessary, It Is Always An Evil, Never A Good. We Will Not Learn How To Live Together In Peace By Killing Each Other's Children.

Last Year I Was On Pat Robertson's Show, And We Discussed Our Basic Christian Faith - For Instance, Separation Of Church And State. It's Contrary To My Beliefs To Try To Exalt Christianity As Having Some Sort Of Preferential Status In The United States. That Violates The Constitution. I'm Not In Favor Of Mandatory Prayer In School Or Of Using Public Funds To Finance Religious Education.

Testing Oneself Is Best When Done Alone.

I've Looked On Many Women With Lust. I've Committed Adultery In My Heart Many Times. God Knows I Will Do This And Forgives Me.

We Are A Purely Idealistic Nation But Let No One Confuse Our Idealism With Weakness.

I Have A Very Real Political Awareness That At Least On A Transient Basis The More Drastic Action Taken By The President, The More Popular It Is.

To Work For Better Understanding Among People, One Does Not Have To Be A Former President Sitting At A Fancy Conference Room Table. Peace Can Be Made In The Neighborhoods, The Living Rooms, The Playing Fields, And The Classrooms Of Our Country.

Ours Is The Most Wasteful Nation On Earth. We Waste More Energy Than We Import. With About The Same Standard Of Living, We Use Twice As Much Energy Per Person As Do Other Countries Like Germany, Japan, And Sweden.

I Separated From The Southern Baptists When They Adopted The Discriminatory Attitude Towards Women, Because I Believe What Paul Taught In Galatians That There Is No Distinction In God's Eyes Between Men And Women, Slaves And Masters, Jews And Non-jews - Everybody Is Created Equally In The Eyes Of God.

Throughout My Life, I've Seen The Difference That Volunteering Efforts Can Make In People's Lives. I Know The Personal Value Of Service As A Local Volunteer.

During The Period Of The Saturn-apollo Missions We Were Pilgrims In Space, Ranging From Home In Search Of Knowledge. Now We Will Become Shepherds Tending Our Technological Flocks, But Like The Shepherds Of Old, We Will Keep Our Eyes Fixed On The Heavens.

I'm Concerned About The Negative Aspect Of Political Campaigning In American Nation, Which Is A New Phenomenon. When I Ran For President Against Gerald Ford And Later Against Ronald Reagan We Never Referred To Each Other Except As 'my Distinguished Opponent'. And Had We Criticised Personally Our Opponent It Would Have Been Political Suicide, We Would Have Been Castigated And Condemned For It.

It's Not Necessary To Fear The Prospect Of Failure But To Be Determined Not To Fail.

I Am Not Going To Use The Federal Government's Authority Deliberately To Circumvent The Natural Inclination Of People To Live In Ethnic Homogeneous Neighborhoods.

I Want To Stress Again That Human Rights Are Not Peripheral To The Foreign Policy Of The United States. Our Pursuit Of Human Rights Is Part Of A Broad Effort To Use Our Great Power And Our Tremendous Influence In The Service Of Creating A Better World, A World In Which Human Beings Can Live In Peace, In Freedom, And With Their Basic Needs Adequately Met.

In General, In The Matters That Relate To Theology Or Behavior, People To One Another, Paul Was Obviously Biblically Correct. But When He Said That Women Should Always Cover Their Hair Or That Women Should Not Teach Men, Women Should Not Have Leadership Positions In The Church, Women Should Not Speak In The Church, I Don't' Think That Those Writings Of Paul Can Be Extracted By Themselves To Stand Alone. Also, Paul Said That Women Should Be Subservient To Their Husbands But If You Read A Couple Of Verses Down It Says Husbands Should Treat Their Wives As Equals.

My Life Since The White House Has Been Much More All-encompassing, Much More Enjoyable. The Main Thing That I've Acquired Has Been Access To The Poorest And Most Destitute, Forgotten, And Suffering People On Earth. It's Not Possible For A President To Actually Know Them.

Jesus Never Said A Word About Homosexuality. In All Of His Teachings About Multiple Things - He Never Said That Gay People Should Be Condemned. I Personally Think It Is Very Fine For Gay People To Be Married In Civil Ceremonies.

The Government And The Church Are Two Different Realms Of Service, And Those In Political Office Have To Face A Subtle But Important Difference Between The Implementation Of The High Ideals Of Religious Faith And Public Duty.

Go Out On A Limb. That's Where The Fruit Is.

If We Do Not Learn To Eliminate Waste And To Be More Productive And More Efficient In The Ways We Use Energy, Then We Will Fall Short Of This Goal [for The Nation To Derive 20 Percent Of All The Energy We Use From The Sun, By 2000]. But If We Use Our Technological Imagination, If We Can Work Together To Harness The Light Of The Sun, The Power Of The Wind, And The Strength Of Rushing Streams, Then We Will Succeed.

I Think What's Going On In Guantanamo Bay And Other Places Is A Disgrace To The U.s.a. I Wouldn't Say It's The Cause Of Terrorism, But It Has Given Impetus And Excuses To Potential Terrorists To Lash Out At Our Country And Justify Their Despicable Acts.

I Officially Designated Every Us Ambassador On Earth To Be My Personal Human Rights Representative, And To Have The Embassy Be A Haven For People Who Suffered From Abuse By Their Own Government.

If Any Agreement Between Two Nations Is To Last, It Must Serve The Best Interests Of Both Nations.

I Think The Most Challenging Thing For Me In My Life And In The Bible Is That We Worship Jesus As The Prince Of Peace. And America Is Constantly At War.

It Is Generally Not Known In The World That, In The Years Preceding 1916, There Was A Concerted Effort Made To Eliminate All The Armenian People, Probably One Of The Greatest Tragedies That Ever Befell Any Group. And There Weren't Any Nuremberg Trials.

The Preeminent Obstacle To Peace Is Israel's Colonization Of Palestine.

Jerry Falwell Can Go Straight To Hell - And I Mean That In A Christian Way.

Homosexuality Was Massively Practiced In Some Of The Conflicting Religions At The Time Of Christ And Even At The Time Of Christ, In Roman Times Show That Homosexuality Was Widely Prevalent. I Think It's Quite Significant That Jesus Never Did Mention It.

There Needs To Be A Similar Degree Of Flexibility And Generosity In The Recognition Of The Humaneness And Worth Of People Who We Generally Consider As Adversaries.

In A Nation That Was Proud Of Hard Work, Strong Families, Close-knit Communities, And Our Faith In God, Too Many Of Us Now Tend To Worship Self-indulgence And Consumption. Human Identity Is No Longer Defined By What One Does, But By What One Owns. But We've Discovered That Owning Things And Consuming Things Does Not Satisfy Our Longing For Meaning. We've Learned That Piling Up Material Goods Cannot Fill The Emptiness Of Lives Which Have No Confidence Or Purpose.

You Always Get Back Much More Than You Give.

We Have The Heaviest Concentration Of Lawyers On Earth -- One For Every Five-hundred Americans; Three Times As Many As Are In England, Four Times As Many As Are In West Germany, Twenty-one Times As Many As There Are In Japan. We Have More Litigation, But I Am Not Sure That We Have More Justice. No Resources Of Talent And Training In Our Own Society, Even Including The Medical Care, Is More Wastefully Or Unfairly Distributed Than Legal Skills. Ninety Percent Of Our Lawyers Serve 10 Percent Of Our People. We Are Over-lawyered And Under-represented.

I'm Still, Except For Making Overseas Trips, I'm Staying Just About As Busy As I Ever Did.

The Southern Baptist Convention, As You Know, Decided In The Year 2000 That Women Should Not Be Permitted To Be Pastors Or Deacons Or Chaplains In The Military Service. Some Southern Baptist Seminaries Don't Even Permit Women To Teach Male Students. I Don't Agree With That. But They Can Go In And Quote A Few Passages Of Paul That Women Should Be Restricted In Their Services.

Under Lenin The Soviet Union Was Like A Religious Revival, Under Stalin Like A Prison, Under Khrushchev Like A Circus, And Under Brezhnev Like The U.s. Post Office.

Nobody Knows When You Make An Effort Or When You Plant A Seed If It Will Bear Fruit Or Not.

As Has Been Emphasized Vigorously By Foreign Allies And By Responsible Leaders Of Former Administrations And Incumbent Officeholders, There Is No Current Danger To The United States From Baghdad.

The Truth Is That Male Religious Leaders Have Had - And Still Have - An Option To Interpret Holy Teachings Either To Exalt Or Subjugate Women. They Have, For Their Own Selfish Ends, Overwhelmingly Chosen The Latter.

My Paintings Have Gotten To Be Pretty Popular And I've Taken A Little Bit More Interest In Painting The Last Few Years. In Fact, My Novel That I Wrote Not Too Long Ago, 'the Hornet's Nest,' I Painted The Cover Picture For It And I Do A Good Bit Of Painting Now.

I Am Not Here As A Public Official, But As A Citizen Of A Troubled World Who Finds Hope In A Growing Consensus That The Generally Accepted Goals Of Society Are Peace, Freedom, Human Rights, Environmental Quality, The Alleviation Of Suffering, And The Rule Of Law.

Penalties Against Possession Of A Drug Should Not Be More Damaging To An Individual Than The Use Of The Drug Itself

My Wish Is Peace For Israel And For Israel's Neighbors.

Our Individual Fates Are Linked Our Futures Intertwined

The Respect For Human Rights Is One Of The Most Significant Advantages Of A Free And Democratic Nation In The Peaceful Struggle For Influence, And We Should Use This Good Weapon As Effectively As Possible.

One Of Our Nation's Greatest Leaders Of All Time Was Hubert Horatio Hornblower.

My Decision To Register Women Confirms What Is Already Obvious Throughout Our Society-that Women Are Now Providing All Types Of Skills In Every Profession. The Military Should Be No Exception.

It Was The Darndest Thing I've Ever Seen. It Was Big, It Was Very Bright, It Changed Colors And It Was About The Size Of The Moon.. We Watched It For Ten Minutes, But None Of Us Could Figure Out What It Was. One Thing's For Sure, I'll Never Make Fun Of People Who Say They've Seen Unidentified Objects In The Sky.

After All These Years, I Still Feel Like A Boy When I'm On A Stream

I’m Not In Favor Of The Government Mandating A Prayer In School Because Our Country Was Founded On The Fact That No Particular Religious Faith Would Have Ascendance Over Or Preferential Treatment Over Any Other.

I Don't Laugh At People Any More When They Say They've Seen Ufos. I've Seen One Myself!

We Must Make It Clear That A Platform Of 'i Hate Gay Men And Women' Is Not A Way To Become President Of The United States.

We Will Not Learn How To Live Together In Peace By Killing Each Other's Children.

God Always Answers Prayer, Sometimes With A Yes, Sometimes With A No And Sometimes With A 'you've Got To Be Kidding!'

My Mother's Influence To Take On New Challenges And Do What I Though Was Right Even Though Sometimes The Consequences Politically Speaking Were Not Good. My Mother Was Vivacious, She Was Full Of Life, She Got Up Every Morning Looking Forward To The Day, Trying To Figure Out What She Could Do That Was Innovative And Unprecedented And Maybe Controversial.

There Are Two Major Peace Agreements. One Is A Comprehensive Peace Agreement That Was Consummated By The Extremely Beneficial Intersession Of The George Bush Administration, Who Called On John Danforth, The Former Senator From Missouri, To Negotiate A Peace Agreement After Eight Years During Which President Clinton Did Not Want To Promote Peace In The Mideast - I Mean, In Sudan. And That's Holding So Far.

Penalties Against Possession Of A Drug Should Not Be More Damaging To An Individual Than The Use Of The Drug Itself; And Where They Are, They Should Be Changed. Nowhere Is This More Clear Than In The Laws Against Possession Of Marijuana In Private For Personal Use... Therefore, I Support Legislation Amending Federal Law To Eliminate All Federal Criminal Penalties For The Possession Of Up To One Ounce [28g] Of Marijuana.

I Think There's An Awakening Now Of A Realization That We Too Early Congratulated Ourselves On The End Of Racial Prejudice And White Supremacy. And That Was A Feeling That We Had When I Was President, That We Had Pretty Much Overcome That Problem.

Communicating Our Questions, Hopes, And Fears In Prayer Makes Them-even To Ourselves-more Open And Clear.

You Can Do What You Have To Do, And Sometimes You Can Do It Even Better Than You Think You Can.

Jesus Is The Son Of God, We Have A Chance For God's Blessings, God's Salvation Through Our Faith In Jesus Christ And All Of Us Are Sinners Who Fall Short Of The Glory Of God, And The Wages Of Sin Is Death But Through Our Faith That Jesus Christ, We Can Be Saved.

I've Never Won An Argument With My Wife; And The Only Time I Thought I Had I Found Out The Argument Wasn't Over Yet.

In A Nation That Was Proud Of Hard Work, Strong Families, Close Knit Communities, And Our Faith In God , Too Many Of Us Now Tend To Worship Self Indulgence And Consumption .

A Strong Nation, Like A Strong Person, Can Afford To Be Gentle, Firm, Thoughtful, And Restrained. It Can Afford To Extend A Helping Hand To Others. It's A Weak Nation, Like A Weak Person, That Must Behave With Bluster And Boasting And Rashness And Other Signs Of Insecurity.

At The Beginning Of This Year Also, I Called Upon The North Korean Side To Open Dialog Between The Responsible Authorities Of The South And The North At Any Place, At Any Time, And At Any Level, In Order To Prevent A Recurrence Of War And To Cooperate To Speed Up The Peaceful Unification Of Our Fatherland. However, No Sincere Response Has Yet Been Made By North Korea.

And So I Say To You And To Others Around The World, Whether They Wish Us Well Or Ill - Do Not Underestimate Us Americans. We Lack Neither Strength Nor Wisdom.

The Stronger The Ties That Bind Us To God, The More Likely We Are To Live, React, And Behave In Harmony With...greater Joy, Peace, And Happiness.

We All Know Grandparents Whose Values Transcend Passing Fads And Pressures, And Who Possess The Wisdom Of Distilled Pain And Joy.

It Would Be Naïve To Think That Peace And Justice Can Be Achieved Easily. No Set Of Rules Or Study Of History Will Automatically Resolve The Problems ... However, With Faith And Perseverance, ... Complex Problems In The Past Have Been Resolved In Our Search For Justice And Peace.

Because We Are Now Running Out Of Gas And Oil, We Must Prepare Quickly For A Third Change, To Strict Conservation And To The Use Of ... Permanent Renewable Energy Sources, Like Solar Power.

In The United States, You Might Say Every County Has Got Its Own Separate System. There's Not Even One Kind Of Ballot That You Use All Over The United States. We Require That In A Foreign Country.

There Was Promulgation Of False Propaganda By The Administration About The Existence Of Weapons Of Mass Destruction In Iraq. There Was Promulgation Of False Propaganda About Iraq As A Base For Al Qaeda.

Mass Destruction

I Think That, Regardless Of Our Culture, Age, Or Even Personal Handicaps, We Can Still Strive For Something Exceptional. Why Not Expand Our Sights Instead Of Restricting Our Lives And Accepting The Lowest Common Denominator Of A Dormant Existence? Faith. . . Will Permit Us To Take A Chance On A New Path, Perhaps Different From The One We Now Follow. It May Be Surprising Where It Leads.

I Think Doctors Care Very Deeply About Their Patients, But When They Organize Into The Ama, Their Responsibility Is To The Welfare Of Doctors, And Quite Often, These Lobbying Groups Are The Only Ones That Are Heard In The State Capitols And In The Capitol Of Our Country.

The Awareness That Health Is Dependent Upon Habits That We Control Makes Us The First Generation In History That To A Large Extent Determines Its Own Destiny.

The Relationship Between Government And Art Must Necessarily Be A Delicate One. It Would Not Be Appropriate For The Government To Try To Define What Is Good Or What Is True Or What Is Beautiful. But Government Can Provide Nourishment To The Ground Within Which These Ideas Spring Forth From The Seeds Of Inspiration Within The Human Mind.

I Just Look At Death As Not A Threat. It's Inevitable, And I Have An Assurance Of Eternal Life.

When I Reflect Upon My Blessings During My Very Nice Lifetime, I Am Inspired To Make Sure That I Spend The Balance Of The Days Of My Existence In A Productive Way.

We Cannot Be Both The World's Leading Champion Of Peace And The World's Leading Supplier Of The Weapons Of War.

Faith Implies A Continuing Search, Not Necessarily A Final Answer.

We Can Drift Along As Though There Were Still A Cold War, Wasting Hundreds Of Billions Of Dollars On Weapons That Will Never Be Used, Ignoring The Problems Of People In This Country And Around The World, Being One Of The Worst Environmental Violators On Earth, Standing Against Any Sort Of Viable Programs To Protect The World's Forests Or To Cut Down On Acid Rain Or The Global Warming Or Ozone Depletion. We Can Ignore Human Rights Violations In Other Countries, Or We Can Take These Things On As True Leaders Ought To And Accept The Inspiring Challenge Of America For The Future.

My Opinion Of The Russians Has Changed Most Drastically In The Last Week Than Even (sic) The Two-and-a-half Years Before That. It's Only Now Dawning Upon The World The Magnitude Of The Action That The Soviets Undertook In Invading Afghanistan.

I Tried To Eliminate The Need For Israel To Strike Out, Militarily, By Removing Its Major Threat And Attacker, And That Was Egypt. I've Written A Few Books On The Subject. There's No Doubt That The Best Way To Resolve Israel's Problems Is To Negotiate Peace Between Israel And Its Immediate Neighbors, Particularly The Palestinians. And That's Something That's Not Going To Be Achieved, In My Opinion, Without The Strong Involvement Of The American President.

Ahmadinejad Is Just A Buffoon, Sort Of A Clown On The International Scene Who Tries To Be Provocative So He Can Get His Name In The Paper And His Face On Television.

The Situation In Gaza Is Intolerable. Not One Destroyed House Has Been Rebuilt Ppl Cannot Live W The Dignity They Deserve

The Carter Center Has A Policy Of Doing What Others Do Not Want To Do. We Do Not Compete With The World Health Organization, The United Nations Or The Us Government.

In General The 53 Countries On The Continent Of Africa Have Made Great Progress Towards Freedom And Democracy, And In Terms Of Electing Good, Sound Administrations.

The Bible And Studying The Bible Has Been An Important Part Of My Life.

[jerry Brown] Is California's Way Of Celebrating The Year Of The Child.

The Measure Of A Society Is Found In How They Treat Their Weakest And Most Helpless Citizens.

People Who Have Lust In Their Heart As Just As Guilty As Those Who Commit Adultery.

We Live In A Time Of Transition, An Uneasy Era Which Is Likely To Endure For The Rest Of This Century... During This Period We May Be Tempted To Abandon Some Of The Time-honored Principles And Commitments Which Have Been Proven During The Difficult Times Of Past Generations. We Must Never Yield To This Temptation. Our American Values Are Not Luxuries But Necessities - Not The Salt In Our Bread But The Bread Itself.

In An All-out Nuclear War, More Destructive Power Than In All Of World War Ii Would Be Unleashed Every Second During The Long Afternoon It Would Take For All The Missiles And Bombs To Fall. A World War Ii Every Second-more People Killed In The First Few Hours Than All The Wars Of History Put Together. The Survivors, If Any, Would Live In Despair Amid The Poisoned Ruins Of A Civilization That Had Committed Suicide.

Energy Will Be The Immediate Test Of Our Ability To Unite This Nation, And It Can Also Be The Standard Around Which We Rally. On The Battlefield Of Energy We Can Win For Our Nation A New Confidence, And We Can Seize Control Again Of Our Common Destiny.

Whether The Borders That Divide Us Are Picket Fences Or National Boundaries, We Are All Neighbors In A Global Community.

In This Outward And Physical Ceremony We Attest Once Again To The Inner And Spiritual Strength Of Our Nation. As My High School Teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, Used To Say: 'we Must Adjust To Changing Times And Still Hold To Unchanging Principles.'

The Importation And Sale Of Marijuana Is Condemned And Punished As A Serious Crime, But We Accept As Legitimate The Manufacture And Sale Of An Infinitely More Addictive And Deadly Drug: The Nicotine In Cigarettes That Cost The Lives Of 390,000 American Citizens Last Year.

The Government Ought To Stay Out Of The Prayer Business.

We Have Been Involved In More Wars, On A Bilateral Basis, Since The United Nations Was Formed Than Any Other Country By Far.

We Can Choose To Alleviate Suffering. We Can Choose To Work Together For Peace. We Can Make These Changes - And We Must.

Working Together

As A Christian, A Trained Engineer And Scientist, And A Professor At Emory University, I Am Embarrassed By Superintendent Kathy Cox's Attempt To Censor And Distort The Education Of Georgia's Students.... There Is No Need To Teach That Stars Can Fall Out Of The Sky And Land On A Flat Earth In Order To Defend Our Religious Faith.

To Me, Faith Is Not Just A Noun But Also A Verb

I Think I Was Identified As A Failed President Because I Wasn't Re-elected.

I Don't Think That Israel Has Any Legal Or Moral Justification For Their Massive Bombing Of The Entire Nation Of Lebanon.

One Of The Most Basic Principles For Making And Keeping Peace Within And Between Nations. . . Is That In Political, Military, Moral, And Spiritual Confrontations, There Should Be An Honest Attempt At The Reconciliation Of Differences Before Resorting To Combat

In A Nuclear Age, Each Of Us Is Threatened When Peace Is Not Secured Everywhere.

Wherever Life Takes Us, There Are Always Moments Of Wonder.

People In The United States, Including Me, Are Naturally Inclined To Support Israel. I'm An Evangelical Christian Who Teaches The Bible Every Sunday At My Church. I Teach Half The Old Testament And Half The New Testament. We Americans Identify The Hebrews, The Israelites, With Ourselves.

I Think With The Advent Of Reagan, And Subsequently, Both Parties, There's Been A Strong Move Towards The Advantage Given To The Richer People, In Taxation And Grants And Supplements And Things Of That Kind. Primarily Exacerbated More Recently By The Supreme Court's Stupid Ruling On Citizens United, And Now There's A Massive Flood Of Money Into The Political System That I Think Has Subverted The Essence Of A Moral And Ethical Standard That Used To Permeate American Democracy. Now It's Not An Admirable Process. I Think We've Gone Backwards.

Christians Are Supposed To Be Evangelicals. And I Am. I Am Evangelical.

In 1891, During The Presidency Of William Henry Harrison [benjamin Harrison], Electric Lights Were First Installed In The White House, The Residence Of The Leaders Of Our Country. At That Time, Commercial Electricity Was Not Economically Feasible, But President Harrison Wanted To Affirm His Confidence In The Technological Capability Of Our Country.

I Can't Think Of A Man More Worthy Of The Presidency Then My Good Friend Sam Nunn.

Genocide, In My Opinion - Is An Attempt By A Powerful Group Completely To Eradicate From The Face Of The Earth The Existence Of People Because Of Their Ethnic Makeup Or Because Of Their Race Or Religion, And That Was The Case With Hitler Trying To Exterminate The Jews, And That Was The Case In Rwanda, When The Tutsis Were Attacked And Over 500,000 Were Killed In Two Or Three Days.

I Believe That We Are Given An Order By Jesus. One Of The Last Things He Did Was To Spread The Word Of God And He Being The Basis For Our Salvation. Christians Are Supposed To Be Evangelicals. And I Am.

When We Go To The Bible We Should Keep In Mind That The Basic Principles Of The Bible Are Taught By God, But Written Down By Human Beings Deprived Of Modern Day Knowledge. So There Is Some Fallibility In The Writings Of The Bible. But The Basic Principles Are Applicable To My Life And I Don't Find Any Conflict Among Them.

The First Step In Providing Economic Equality For Women Is To Ensure A Stable Economy In Which Every Person Who Wants To Work Can Work.

If I Should Ever Decide In The Future To Discuss My Deep Christian Beliefs And Condemnation And Sinfulness, I Would Use Another Forum Besides Playboy.

There's No Way To Have A Peace Agreement Unless The Mediator Or Negotiator Looks At Both Sides From An Equal Basis.

The Energy Crisis Has Not Yet Overwhelmed Us, But It Will If We Do Not Act Quickly. It's A Problem That We Will Not Be Able To Solve In The Next Few Years, And It's Likely To Get Progressively Worse Through The Rest Of This Century. We Must Not Be Selfish Or Timid If We Hope To Have A Decent World For Our Children And Grandchildren. We Simply Must Balance Our Demand For Energy With Our Rapidly Shrinking Resources. By Acting Now We Can Control Our Future Instead Of Letting The Future Control Us.

Unfortunately, Every American Citizen Takes The Same Position... That We Don’t Like Negative Advertisements. But They Work! And, As You See, Many A Candidate Has Prevailed By Tearing Down The Reputation Of An Opponent In A More Advantageous Position.

In Retrospect, I Can See That President Brezhnev Was Quite Proud Of The Limited Agreement That He Had Concluded In Vladivostok; And To Have A New American President Come In And Say, "that Is Not Good Enough - Let's Do Much More, And Do It Quite Rapidly," Took Him By Surprise.

Not Good Enough

I Come Out Of The Environment Of The Deep South, Where I Had Seen The Millstone Of Racial Discrimination Weighting Down My People, Both The Black People And The White People; And I Had Seen The Enormous Progress That We Were Able To Make After We Removed The Legal Restraints Of A Two-class Society, With The Whites Superior And Blacks Inferior. So I Was Very Convinced Before I Became President That Basic Human Rights, Equality Of Opportunity, The End Of Abuse By Governments Of Their People, Was A Basic Principle On Which The United States Should Be An Acknowledged Champion.

My Position Has Always Been, Along With Many Other People, That Any Differences Be Resolved In A Nonviolent Way.

When I Was In The White House, I Was Confronted With The Challenge Of The Cold War. Both The Soviet Union And I Had 30,000 Nuclear Weapons That Could Destroy The Entire Earth And I Had To Maintain The Peace.

We've Got To Stop Crying And Start Sweating, Stop Talking And Start Walking, Stop Cursing And Start Praying. The Strength We Need Will Not Come From The White House, But From Every House In America.

Human Identity Is No Longer Defined By What One Does But Rather By What One Owns.

I Believe In The Separation Of Church And State. The Government Has The Right To Say What Happens In A Civil Case, Like In A Court House. And Religious People Have A Right To Say What Happens In A Church Congregation. They Are Two Completely Separate Things.

We Have A Special Relationship With Israel. It's Absolutely Crucial That No One In Our Country Or Around The World Ever Doubt That Our Number One Committment In The Middle East Is To Protect The Right Of Israel To Exist, To Exist Permanently, And To Exist In Peace. It's A Special Relationship.

Before I Became President, In The Aftermath Of The Vietnam War, There Had Been Fairly Dramatic, And I Think Excessive, Reductions In The Capability Of Our Military Forces, And As A Former Military Man Myself - I Was A Professional Naval Officer, A Submarine Officer - I Thought It Was Better, On A Step-by-step, Very Carefully Planned Way, To Increase The Technical, Or Technological, Capability Of Our Weapons Systems.

I Advocate The Modification Of The '67 Borders To Let About Half Of The Israeli Stay In Palestine.

I Don't Think That The Total Creation Took Place In Six Days As We Now Measure Time. If We Can Confirm, Say, The Big Bang Theory, That Doesn't At All Cause Me To Question My Faith That God Created The Big Bang.

For This Generation, Ours, Life Is Nuclear Survival, Liberty Is Human Rights, The Pursuit Of Happiness Is A Planet Whose Resources Are Devoted To The Physical And Spiritual Nourishment Of Its Inhabitants.

Rosalynn Said, "jimmy, If We Could Only Get Prime Minister Begin And President Sadat Up Here On This Mountain For A Few Days, I Believe They Might Consider How They Could Prevent Another War Between Their Countries." That Gave Me The Idea, And A Few Weeks Later, I Invited Both Men To Join Me For A Series Of Private Talks. In September 1978, They Both Came To Camp David.

My Constant Prayer, My Number One Foreign Goal, Is To Bring Peace To Israel. And In The Process To Israel's Neighbours.

Trending Author

Eddie Bernice Johnson

Wilhelm Von Humboldt

Jean De La Bruyere

Category