Background Image

...

I Let The American People Down, And I Have To Carry That Burden For The Rest Of My Life. My Political Life Is Over. I Will Never Again Have An Opportunity To Serve In Any Official Position. Maybe I Can Give A Little Advice From Time To Time.

-Richard M. Nixon

...

Please Wait....
Translating....

I Let The American

Richard M. Nixon

...

I Let The American People Down, And I Have To Carry That Burden For The Rest Of My Life. My Political Life Is Over. I Will Never Again Have An Opportunity To Serve In Any Official Position. Maybe I Can Give A Little Advice From Time To Time.

Views: 8

Topic

More From Richard M. Nixon

Politics Would Be A Helluva Good Business If It Weren't For The Goddamned People.

Idealism Without Pragmatism Is Impotent. Pragmatism Without Idealism Is Meaningless. The Key To Effective Leadership Is Pragmatic Idealism.

Peace Is The Real And Right Memorial For Those Who Have Died In War.

Where The Hell Is Chad?

I Was Not Lying. I Said Things That Later On Seemed To Be Untrue.

I Seriously Doubt If We Will Ever Have Another War. This Is Probably The Very Last One.

No Event In American History Is More Misunderstood Than The Vietnam War. It Was Misreported Then, And It Is Misremembered Now.

The More You Stay In This Kind Of Job, The More You Realize That A Public Figure, A Major Public Figure, Is A Lonely Man.

When Information Which Properly Belongs To The Public Is Systematically Withheld By Those In Power, The People Soon Become Ignorant Of Their Own Affairs, Distrustful Of Those Who Manage Them, And -- Eventually -- Incapable Of Determining Their Own Destinies.

You Have My Assurance That We Will Respond With Full Force Should The Settlement Be Violated By North Vietnam.

Publicly, We Say One Thing....actually, We Do Another.

The One Thing Sure About Politics Is That What Goes Up Comes Down And What Goes Down Often Comes Up.

Look At The Justice Department, It's Full Of Jews...the Lawyers In Government Are Damn Jews.

The Press Is The Enemy.

Let Us Remember That The Main Purpose Of American Aid Is Not To Help Other Nations, But To Help Ourselves.

If I Had Feelings, I Probably Wouldn’t Have Even Survived.

The Communists Have Lost The Cold War, But The West Has Not Yet Won It.

We Are All In It Together. This Is A War. We Take A Few Shots And It Will Be Over. We Will Give Them A Few Shots And It Will Be Over.

Failure Isn't Falling Down. Failure Is Not Getting Up After You Have Fallen Down.

I Think Congress Has Spent Enough Time On Ethics. I Think It's Time They Moved On To Something Else.

The Color Of Communism Was Not Red But Gray.

Never Say No When A Client Asks For Something, Even If It Is The Moon. You Can Always Try, And Anyhow There Is Plenty Of Time Afterwards To Explain That It Was Not Possible.

You've Got To Learn To Survive A Defeat. That's When You Develop Character.

Americans Admire A People Who Can Scratch A Desert And Produce A Garden. The Israelis Have Shown Qualities That Americans Identify With: Guts, Patriotism, Idealism, A Passion For Freedom. I Have Seen It. I Know. I Believe That.

Jesus This Song You Wrote The Words Are Sticking In My Throat Peace On Earth Hear It Every Christmas Time But Hope And History Won't Rhyme So What's It Worth? This Peace On Earth

It Is In That Spirit, The Spirit Of '76, That I Ask You To Rise And Join Me In A Toast To Chairman Mao, To Premier Chou, To The People Of Our Two Countries, And To The Hope Of Our Children That Peace And Harmony Can Be The Legacy Of Our Generation To Theirs.

Government Has The Responsibility To Provide The Climate In Which Americans, All Americans, Have An Opportunity For Good Jobs; And Not Only For Good Jobs, But An Opportunity If They Have The Ability And The Desire, To Be Owners And Managers, To Have A Piece Of The Action, Because If They Have A Piece Of The Action, Then They Believe In The System Rather Than Fighting Against It.

My Gravest Secret Is That I Really Did Fake The Moon Landing. On Venus!

We Cannot Learn From One Another Until We Stop Shouting At One Another - Until We Speak Quietly Enough So That Our Words Can Be Heard As Well As Our Voices.

I'll Speak For The Man, Or Against Him, Whichever Will Do Him The Most Good.

We Should Set Goals Within The Limits Of Our Resources While Working To The Limits Of Our Powers.

You Must Never Give Up. You Must Remember That You Have To Take Risks In Order To Achieve Anything And Sometimes You Will Suffer Defeat. But The Mark Of Any Individual Is To Recover From Defeat And Disappointment And Go On And Give It His Best Shot.

Unless A President Can Protect The Privacy Of The Advice He Gets, He Cannot Get The Advice He Needs.

Listen, I Don't Know Anything About Polygraphs And I Don't Know How Accurate They Are, But I Know They'll Scare The Hell Out Of People.

The Only Way To Achieve A Practical, Livable Peace In A World Of Competing Nations Is To Take The Profit Out Of War.

A Man Who Has Never Lost Himself In A Cause Bigger Than Himself Has Missed One Of Life's Mountaintop Experiences. Only In Losing Himself Does He Find Himself. Only Then Does He Discover All The Latent Strengths He Never Knew He Had And Which Otherwise Would Have Remained Dormant.

When I Am The Candidate, I Run The Campaign.

To The Ordinary Guy, All This Is A Bunch Of Gobbledygook. But Out Of The Gobbledygook Comes A Very Clear Thing: You Can't Trust The Government, You Can't Believe What They Say, And You Can't Rely On Their Judgment.

The Pakistanis Are Straightforward And Sometimes Extremely Stupid. The Indians Are More Devious, Sometimes So Smart That We Fall For Their Line.

I Don't Think A Woman Should Be In Any Government Job Whatever. I Mean, I Really Don't. The Reason Why I Do Is Mainly Because They Are Erratic And Emotional.

Any Nation That Decides The Only Way To Achieve Peace Is Through Peaceful Means Is A Nation That Will Soon Be A Piece Of Another Nation.

As Far As I Am Concerned Now, I Have No Enemies In The Press Whatsoever.

A Politician Knows That His Friends Are Not Always His Allies, And That His Adversaries Are Not Always His Enemies.

Sharp Increases In The Minimum Wage Rate Are Also Inflationary. Frequently Workers Paid More Than The Minimum Gauge Their Wages Relative To It. This Is Especially True Of Those Workers Who Are Paid By The Hour. An Increase In The Minimum Therefore Increases Their Demands For Higher Wages In Order To Maintain Their Place In The Structure Of Wages. And When The Increase Is As Sharp As It Is In H.r. 7935, The Result Is Sure To Be A Fresh Surge Of Inflation.

Federal And State Laws (should) Be Changed To No Longer Make It A Crime To Possess Marijuana For Private Use.

Look, People Get Drunk ... People Chase Girls. And The Point Is, It's A Hell Of A Lot Better For Them To Get Drunk Than To Take Drugs. It's Better To Chase Girls Than Boys.

Now That All The Members Of The Press Are So Delighted I Lost, I'd Like To Make A Statement. As I Leave You I Want You To Know -just Think How Much You'll Be Missing. You Won't Have Nixon To Kick Around Anymore Because, Gentlemen, This Is My Last Press Conference.

Our Idea Is To Create A Situation In Which Those Lands To Which We Have Obligations Or In Which We Have Interests, If They Are Ready To Fight A Fire, Should Be Able To Count On Us To Furnish The Hose And Water.

The Jewish Cabal Is Out To Get Me.

I Also Believe That Academic Freedom Should Protect The Right Of A Professor Or Student To Advocate Marxism, Socialism, Communism, Or Any Other Minority Viewpoint - No Matter How Distasteful To The Majority, Provided...

Academic Freedom

The Three Most Difficult Words To Speak Are, "i Was Wrong."

If We Take The Route Of The Permanent Handout, The American Character Will Itself Be Impoverished.

We Are Committed To Cleaning Up The Air And Cleaning Up The Water. But We Also Are Committed To A Strong Economy, And We Are Not Going To Allow The Environmental Issue To Be Used Sometimes Falsely And Sometimes In A Demagogic Way Basically To Destroy The System-the Industrial System That Made This The Great Country It Is.

This Is The Greatest Week In The History Of The World Since The Creation, Because As A Result Of What Happened In This Week, The World Is Bigger, Infinitely.

It I Talked About Watergate, I Was Described As Struggling To Free Myself From The Morass. If I Did Not Talk About Watergate, I Was Accused Of Being Out Of Touch With Reality.

The Jews Are Irreligious, Atheistic, Immoral Bunch Of Bastards.

There Are Times When An Abortion Is Necessary. I Know That. When You Have A Black And A White.

Because The Public Lands Belong To All Americans, This 1872 Mining Act Should Be Repealed.

Since I Have Never One A Debate Let Me Tell You How Not To Lose One.

...we Must Strike A Balance So That The Protection Of Our Irreplaceable Heritage Becomes As Important As Its Use. The Price Of Economic Growth Need Not And Will Not Be Deterioration In The Quality Of Our Lives And Our Surroundings.

When The Death Of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt Thrust Him Suddenly Into The Presidency In April Of 1945 At One Of The Most Critical Moments Of Our History, He Met That Moment With Courage And Vision. His Farsighted Leadership In The Postwar Era Has Helped Ever Since To Preserve Peace And Freedom In The World.

I Would Have Made A Good Pope.

I Was Under Medication When I Made The Decision To Burn The Tapes.

The Chinese Use Two Brush Strokes To Write The Word "crisis." One Brush Stroke Stands For Danger; The Other For Opportunity.

Positive Thinking

An Important Measure Of Our True Commitment To Environmental Quality Is Our Dedication To Protecting The Wilderness And Its Inhabitants. We Must Recognize Their Ecological Significance And Preserve Them As Sources Of Inspiration And Education. And We Need Them As Places Of Quiet Refuge And Reflection.

For Its Part, Government Will Listen. We Will Strive To Listen In New Ways - To The Voices Of Quiet Anguish, To Voices That Speak Without Words, The Voices Of The Heart, To The Injured Voices, And The Anxious Voices, And The Voices That Have Despaired Of Being Heard.

If The President Does It, It Can't Be Illegal.

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.

Let Us Understand: North Vietnam Cannot Defeat Or Humiliate The United States. Only Americans Can Do That.

When The Strongest Nation In The World Can Be Tied Up For Years In A War With No End In Sight, When The Richest Nation In The World Can't Manage Its Own Economy, When The Nation With The Greatest Tradition Of The Rule Of Law Is Plagued By Unprecedented Lawlessness, And When The President Of The United States Cannot Travel Abroad Or To Any Major City At Home Without Fear Of A Hostile Demonstration - Then It's Time For New Leadership For The United States Of America.

Let Me Just Say This, And I Want To Say This To The Televison Audience: I Made My Mistakes, But In All Of My Years Of Public Life, I Have Never Profited, Never Profited From Public Service

If, When The Chips Are Down, The Worlds Most Powerful Nation, The United States Of America, Acts Like A Pitiful, Helpless Giant, The Forces Of Totalitarianism And Anarchy Will Threaten Free Nations And Free Institutions Throughout The World.

Most Days I Feel Like The Sole Survivor Of A Shipwreck, Rowing My Paddleboat Across A Sea Of People On Waves Made Of An Infinite Array Of Hands And Crests That Reveal Anonymous Faces. On A Good Day, The Clouds Part To Alight On-lo And Behold-an Island! I Step Ashore, Only Find That It Too Is Made Of People, Mangled Bodies Somehow Still Alive. They Grab At My Feet, Pulling Me Under Like Quicksand. The Last Thing I See Before Suffocating Is The Sky, A Billion Eyes Staring Down, Blinking In Undulating Electric Ripples. The Cold Rain I Feel On My Cheeks Is The Tears Of The People.

America Will Not Tolerate Being Pushed Around By Anybody, Anyplace.

Never Forget, The Press Is The Enemy. The Establishment Is The Enemy. The Professors Are The Enemy. Professors Are The Enemy. Write That On A Blackboard 100 Times And Never Forget It.

When I Grow Up, I Want To Be An Honest Lawyer So Things Like That Can't Happen.

We Can No Longer Afford To Consider Air And Water Common Property, Free To Be Abused By Anyone Without Regard To The Consequences. Instead, We Should Begin Now To Treat Them As Scarce Resources, Which We Are No More Free To Contaminate Than We Are Free To Throw Garbage Into Our Neighbor's Yard.

...because There Are No Local Or State Boundaries To The Problems Of Our Environment, The Federal Government Must Play An Active, Positive Role. We Can And Will Set Standards. We Can And Will Exercise Leadership.

Screw State! State's Always On The Side Of The Blacks. The Hell With Them!

Watergate Had Become The Center Of The Media's Universe, And During The Remaining Year Of My Presidency The Media Tried To Force Everything Else To Revolve Around It.

Mrs. Nixon And I Share The Sorrow Of Millions Of Americans At The Death Of Louis Armstrong. One Of The Architects Of An American Art Form, A Free And Individual Spirit, And An Artist Of Worldwide Fame, His Great Talents And Magnificent Spirit Added Richness And Pleasure To All Our Lives.

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.

The Great Silent Majority.

The Successful Leader Does Not Talk Down To People. He Lifts Them Up.

I Don't Mind The Homosexuality. I Understand It. Nevertheless, Goddamn, I Don't Think You Glorify It On Public Television, Homosexuality, Even More Than You Glorify Whores. We All Know We Have Weaknesses. But, Goddammit, What Do You Think That Does To Kids? You Know What Happened To The Greeks! Homosexuality Destroyed Them. Sure, Aristotle Was A Homo. We All Know That. So Was Socrates.

Defeat Doesn't Finish A Man, Quit Does. A Man Is Not Finished When He's Defeated. He's Finished When He Quits.

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.

This Is A Great Day For France!

'environment' Is Not An Abstract Concern, Or Simply A Matter Of Aesthetics, Or Of Personal Taste - Although It Can And Should Involve These As Well. Man Is Shaped To A Great Extent By His Surroundings. Our Physical Nature, Our Mental Health, Our Culture And Institutions, Our Opportunities For Challenge And Fulfillment, Our Very Survival - All Of These Are Directly Related To And Affected By The Environment In Which We Live. They Depend Upon The Continued Healthy Functioning Of The Natural Systems Of The Earth.

To A Crisis Of The Spirit, We Need An Answer Of The Spirit. To Find That Answer, We Need Only Look Within Ourselves. When We Listen To The Better Angels Of Our Nature, We Find That They Celebrate The Simple Things, The Basic Things--such As Goodness, Decency, Love, Kindness. Greatness Comes In Simple Trappings.

You Cannot Win A Battle In Any Arena Merely By Defending Yourself.

The Events That Followed Our Withdrawal From Vietnam, Including The Plight Of The Boat People And The More Than 1 Million Slaughtered By The New Communist Rulers Of Cambodia, Showed That Media Critics Who Said We Were On The Wrong Side Were Mistaken.

Idealism Without Realism Is Impotent. Realism Without Idealism Is Immoral.

... Member Countries Shall Take Necessary Action And/or Shall Establish Negotiations, Individually Or In Groups, With The Oil Companies With A View To Adopting Ways And Means To Offset Any Adverse Effects On The Per Barrel Real Income Of Member Countries Resulting From The International Monetary Developments As Of 15th August 1971.

If I Had My Life To Live Over, I Would Have Liked To Have Ended Up As A Sportswriter.

The Italians . . . You Can't Find One Who Is Honest.

When I Spoke At The St. Lawrence Seaway Ceremonies In 1969, I Borrowed Some Words From The Monument There Which I Had Joined Queen Elizabeth In Dedicating Just 10 Years Before. That Monument, As Its Inscription Puts It, 'bears Witness To The Common Purpose Of Two Nations Whose Frontiers Are The Frontiers Of Friendship, Whose Ways Are The Ways Of Freedom, Whose Works Are The Works Of Peace'.

Fate Has Ordained That The Men Who Went To The Moon To Explore In Peace Will Stay On The Moon To Rest In Peace. These Brave Men, Neil Armstrong And Edwin Aldrin, Know That There Is No Hope For Their Recovery. But They Also Know That There Is Hope For Mankind In Their Sacrifice.

We Must Maintain The Integrity Of The White House, And That Integrity Must Be Real, Not Transparent. There Can Be No Whitewash At The White House.

People Are Persuaded By Reason, But Moved By Emotion; [the Leader] Must Both Persuade Them And Move Them.

It Is Necessary For Me To Establish A Winner Image. Therefore, I Have To Beat Somebody.

Being Trustworthy Is Something You Are, Something You Stand For And A Core Value You Live By. It Isn't Something You Can Train For Nor Is It Something You Can Manipulate. You Either Have Those Values Or You Don't.

Nobody Is A Friend Of Ours. Let's Face It.

People Have Got To Know Whether Or Not Their President Is A Crook. Well, I'm Not A Crook. I Earned Everything I've Got.

Maybe New York Shouldn't Survive. Maybe It Should Go Through A Cycle Of Destruction.

I Don't Think That A Leader Can Control, To Any Great Extent, His Destiny. Very Seldom Can He Step In And Change The Situation If The Forces Of History Are Running In Another Direction.

[peter] Drucker Says That Modern Government Can Do Only Two Things Well: Wage War And Inflate The Currency. Its The Aim Of My Administration To Prove Mr Drucker Wrong.

I Want To Be Sure...that Nothing Is Done On These Veterans. Is That Understood?...is The Word Out? That They Are Not To Touch Em, They Are Not To Do A Thing?...get A Hold Of The District Police; They're Not To Touch Them, They're To Do Nothing: Just Let Em Raise Hell.

The Only Place You And I Disagree Is With Regard To The Bombing. You're So Goddamned Concerned About The Civilians, And I (in Contrast) Don't Give A Damn. I Don't Care.". . . "i'd Rather Use The Nuclear Bomb. . . Does That Bother You? I Just Want You To Think Big.

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.

Geography And History

I Reject The Cynical View That Politics Is A Dirty Business.

I Never Leave A Game Before The Last Pitch, Because In Baseball, As In Life And Especially Politics, You Never Know What Will Happen.

There Is No Such Thing As A Nonpolitical Speech By A Politician.

I Wish I Could Give You A Lot Of Advice, Based On My Experience Of Winning Political Debates. But I Don't Have That Experience. My Only Experience Is At Losing Them.

A President Can Ask For Reconciliation In The Racial Conflict That Divides Americans. But Reconciliation Comes Only From The Hearts Of People.

I Didn't Do Anything Wrong And I Promise To Never Do It Again.

We Must Never Forget That If The War In Vietnam Is Lost ... The Right Of Free Speech Will Be Extinguished Throughout The World.

The President Wants Me To Argue That He Is As Powerful A Monarch As Louis Xiv, Only Four Years At A Time, And Is Not Subject To The Processes Of Any Court In The Land Except The Court Of Impeachment.

We Seek Friendly Relations With All Nations. Any Nation Can Be Our Friend Without Being Any Other Nation's Enemy.

Black Americans, No More Than White Americans, They Do Not Want More Government Programs Which Perpetuate Dependency. They Don't Want To Be A Colony In A Nation.

The Student Who Invades An Administration Building, Roughs Up A Dean, Rifles The Files And Issues 'non-negotiable Demands' May Have Some Of His Demands Met By A Permissive University Administration. But The Greater His 'victory' The More He Will Have Undermined The Security Of His Own Rights.

[the Public Lands Represent] In A Sense, The Breathing Space Of The Nation.

Breathing Space

What Was Watergate? A Little Bugging!

I'm Not A Lovable Man.

The Bohemian Grove, Which I Attend From Time To Time - It Is The Most Faggy Goddamned Thing You Could Ever Imagine.

Let Historians Not Record That When America Was The Most Powerful Nation In The World We Passed On The Other Side Of The Road And Allowed The Last Hopes For Peace And Freedom Of Millions Of People To Be Suffocated By The Forces Of Totalitarianism. And So Tonightto You, The Great Silent Majority Of My Fellow Americansi Ask For Your Support.

We Believe That Part Of The Answer Lies In Pricing Energy On The Basis Of Its Full Costs To Society. One Reason We Use Energy So Lavishly Today Is That The Price Of Energy Does Not Include All Of The Social Costs Of Producing It. The Costs Incurred In Protecting The Environment And The Health And Safety Of Workers, For Example, Are Part Of The Real Costs Of Producing Energy-but They Are Not Now All Included In The Price Of The Product.

But Above All, What This Congress Can Be Remembered For Is Opening The Way To A New American Revolutiona Peaceful Revolution In Which Power Was Turned Back To The Peoplein Which Government At All Levels Was Refreshed And Renewed And Made Truly Responsive. This Can Be A Revolution As Profound, As Far-reaching, As Exciting As That First Revolution Almost 200 Years Agoand It Can Mean That Just 5 Years From Now America Will Enter Its Third Century As A Young Nation New In Spirit, With All The Vigor And The Freshness With Which It Began Its First Century.

Once You Get Into This Great Stream Of History You Can't Get Out. You Can Drown. Or You Can Be Pulled Ashore By The Tide. But It Is Awfully Hard To Get Out When You Are In The Middle Of The Stream -- If It Is Intended That You Stay There.

Don't Try To Take On A New Personality; It Doesn't Work.

I Hereby Resign This Office Of President Of The United States.

Those Who Hate You Don't Win Unless You Hate Them Back.

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.

Always Give Your Best. Never Get Discouraged. Never Be Petty.

Great Presidents

There Are Some People, You Know, They Think The Way To Be A Big Man Is To Shout And Stomp And Raise Hell-and Then Nothing Ever Really Happens. I'm Not Like That I Never Shoot Blanks.

At Home, We Must Reject The Mistaken Notion - A Notion That Has Dominated Too Much Of The Public Dialogue For Too Long - That Ever Bigger Government Is The Answer To Every Problem.

The Lesson Of All History Warns Us That We Should Negotiate Only When Our Military Superiority Is So Convincing That We Can Achieve Our Objective At The Conference Table, And Deny The Aggressor Theirs.

My View Is That One Should Not Break Up A Winning Combination.

Tonight - To You, The Great Silent Majority Of My Fellow Americans - I Ask For Your Support.

Once Genius Is Submerged By Bureaucracy, A Nation Is Doomed To Mediocrity.

If An Individual Wants To Be A Leader And Isn't Controversial, That Means He Never Stood For Anything.

The Ability To Be Cool, Confident, And Decisive In Crisis Is Not An Inherited Characteristic But Is The Direct Result Of How Well The Individual Has Prepared Himself For The Battle.

Under The Doctrine Of Separation Of Powers, The Manner In Which The President Personally Exercises His Assigned Executive Powers Is Not Subject To Questioning By Another Branch Of Government.

I Had Never Expected That The China Initiative Would Come To Fruition In The Form Of A Ping-pong Team.

Your Mind Must Always Go, Even While You're Shaking Hands And Going Through All The Maneuvers. I Developed The Ability Long Ago To Do One Thing While Thinking About Another.

The Bastards Have Never Been Bombed Like They're Going To Be Bombed This Time.

If Some Of My Judgments Were Wrong - And Some Were Wrong - They Were Made In What I Believed At The Time To Be The Best Interest Of The Nation.

The True Idealist Pursues What His Heart Says Is Right In A Way That His Head Says Will Work.

Why Would Anyone Want To Be President Today? The Answer Is Not One Of Glory, Or Fame; Today The Burdens Of The Office Outweigh Its Privileges. Its Not Because The Presidency Offers A Chance To Be Somebody, But Because It Offers A Chance To Do Something.

I Gave 'em A Sword. And They Stuck It In, And They Twisted It With Relish. And I Guess If I Had Been In Their Position, I'd Have Done The Same Thing.

No President In History Has Been More Vilified Or Was More Vilivied During The Time He Was President Than Lincoln. Those Who Knew Him, His Secretaries, Have Written That He Was Deeply Hurt By What Was Said About Him And Drawn About Him, But On The Other Hand, Lincoln Had The Great Strength Of Character Never To Display It, Always Able To Stand Tall And Strong And Firm No Matter How Harsh Or Unfair The Criticism Might Be. These Elements Of Greatness, Of Course, Inspire Us All Today.

There Can Be No Whitewash At The White House.

History Is A Pathetic Junkyard Of Broken Treaties.

Only If You Have Been In The Deepest Valley, Can You Ever Know How Magnificent It Is To Be On The Highest Mountain.

Clean Air, Clean Water, Open Spaces - These Should Once Again Be The Birthright Of Every American.

In The Television Age, The Key Distinction Is Between The Candidate Who Can Speak Poetry And The One Who Can Only Speak Prose.

It Is Essential That We Take Steps To Prevent Chemical Substances From Becoming Environmental Hazards. Unless We Develop Better Methods To Assure Adequate Testing Of Chemicals, We Will Be Inviting The Environmental Crisis Of The Future.

People React To Fear, Not Love; They Don't Teach That In Sunday School, But It's True.

I Took A Look Around The Office. ... I Walked Out And Closed The Door Behind Me. I Knew That I Would Not Be Back There Again." (on Leaving The Executive Office Building)

I Would Rather Be A One-term President And Do What I Believe Is Right Than To Be A Two-term President At The Cost Of Seeing America Become A Second-race Power And To See This Nation Accept The First Defeat In Its Proud 190-year History.

I Doubt If Any Of Them Would Even Intentionally Double-park.

In The Long Term We Can Hope That Religion Will Change The Nature Of Man And Reduce Conflict. But History Is Not Encouraging In This Respect. The Bloodiest Wars In History Have Been Religious Wars.

As We Work To Expand Our Supplies Of Energy, We Should Also Recognize That We Must Balance Those Efforts With Our Concern To Preserve Our Environment. In The Past, As We Have Sought New Energy Sources, We Have Too Often Damaged Or Despoiled Our Land.

I Often Thought That If There Had Been A Good Rap Group Around In Those Days, I Might Have Chosen A Career In Music Instead Of Politics.

We Must Always Remember That America Is A Great Nation Today Not Because Of What Government Did For People But Because Of What People Did For Themselves And For One Another.

People Should Not Have To Pay For Pollution They Do Not Cause.

Finishing Second In The Olympics Gets You Silver. Finishing Second In Politics Gets You Oblivion.

Don't Get The Impression That You Arouse My Anger. You See, One Can Only Be Angry With Those He Respects.

What Starts The Process, Really, Are Laughs And Slights And Snubs When You Are A Kid. If Your Anger Is Deep Enough And Strong Enough, You Learn That You Can Change Those Attitudes By Excellence, Personal Gut Performance.

Peace Demands More, Not Less, From A People. Peace Lacks The Clarity Of Purpose And The Cadence Of War. War Is Scripted: Peace Is Improvisation.

Clarity Of Purpose

They Say, "gee, You Look Great." That Means They Thought You Looked Like Hell Before.

I'm Not For Women, Frankly, In Any Job. I Don't Want Any Of Them Around. Thank God We Don't Have Any In The Cabinet.

They Say It's The Responsibility Of The Media To Look At Government - Especially The President - With A Microscope. I Don't Argue With That, But When They Use A Proctoscope, It's Going Too Far.

Voters Quickly Forget What A Man Says.

So You Are Lean And Mean And Resourceful And You Continue To Walk On The Edge Of The Precipice Because Over The Years You Have Become Fascinated By How Close You Can Walk Without Losing Your Balance.

If You Take No Risks, You Will Suffer No Defeats. But If You Take No Risks, You Win No Victories.

I Have Earned Every Cent. And In All Of My Years Of Public Life I Have Never Obstructed Justice.

The Greatest Honor History Can Bestow Is The Title Of Peacemaker.

The Language Of Politics Is Poetry, Not Prose. Jackson Is Poetry. Cuomo Is Poetry. Dukakis Is A Word Processor.

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.

No Failure Is Final Unless You Ratify It.

Solutions Are Not The Answer.

The Presidency Has Many Problems, But Boredom Is The Least Of Them.

There Are Some Instances Where You May Be Ahead Of Us, For Example, In The Development Of The Thrust Of Your Rockets For The Investigation Of Outer Space; There May Be Some Instances In Which We Are Ahead Of You--in Color Television, For Instance.

The Constitution Supposes What The History Of All Governments Demonstrates, That The Executive Is The Branch Of Power Most Interested In War And Most Prone To It. It Has Accordingly With Studied Care, Vested The Question Of War In The Legislature. [if A President Is Successful In Bypassing The Congress] It Is Evident That The People Are Cheated Out Of The Best Ingredients In The Government, The Safeguards Of Peace Which Is The Greatest Of Their Blessings.

A Riot Is A Spontaneous Outburst. A War Is Subject To Advance Planning.

The People's Right To Change What Does Not Work Is One Of The Greatest Principles In Our System Of Government

I Have A Theory, Too, That The Best And Only Answer To A Smear Or To An Honest Misunderstanding Of The Facts Is To Tell The Truth

Writing Is The Toughest Thing I've Ever Done.

With Those Who Are Willing To Join, Let Us Cooperate To Reduce The Burden Of Arms, To Strengthen The Structure Of Peace, To Lift Up The Poor And The Hungry.

I've Never Canceled A Subscription To A Newspaper Because Of Bad Cartoons Or Editorials. If That Were The Case, I Wouldn't Have Any Newspapers Or Magazines To Read.

There Is An International Disease Which Feeds On The Notion That If You Have A Cause To Defend, You Can Use Any Means To Further Your Cause, Since The End Justifies The Means. As An International Community, We Must Oppose This Notion, Whether It Be In Canada, In The United States, Or Anywhere Else. No Cause Justifies Violence As Long As The System Provides For Change By Peaceful Means.

Television In Its Present Form...[is] The Opiate Of The People Of The United States.

You Can't Depend On The Man Who Made The Mess To Clean It Up.

I Let The American People Down, And I Have To Carry That Burden For The Rest Of My Life. My Political Life Is Over. I Will Never Again Have An Opportunity To Serve In Any Official Position. Maybe I Can Give A Little Advice From Time To Time.

You Find Out Who Your True Friends Are Not When You Are On Top Of The World, But When The World Is On Top Of You.

Top Of The World

A Man Isn't Finnished When He Is Beaten He Is Finnished When He Quits

It Is Sad That It Was Necessary That Santa Barbara Should Be The Example That Had To Bring It To The Attention Of The American People. What Is Involved Is The Use Of Our Resources Of The Sea And Of The Land In A More Effective Way And With More Concern For Preserving The Beauty And The Natural Resources That Are So Important To Any Kind Of Society That We Want For The Future. The Santa Barbara Incident Has Frankly Touched The Conscience Of The American People.

I Always Remember That Whatever I Have Done In The Past Or May Do In The Future, Duke University Is Responsible In One Way Or Another.

While Might Certainly Does Not Make Right, Neither Does Right By Itself Make Might.

Trending Author

William H. Macy

James F. Byrnes

Category