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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.

-Richard M. Nixon

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No President In History

Richard M. Nixon

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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.

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The Soviet Union Began By Banishing God. The United States Began As A Community Of People Who Wanted To Worship God As They Chose. . . Man Does Not Live By Bread Alone. Those In The United States Whose Desire To Create A Strictly Secular Society Is As Strong As Lenin's Was Should Study This Cold War Lesson Closely. Communism Was Defeated By An Alliance Spearheaded By 'one Nation Under God.'

Lyndon Johnson Rose Above The Doubt And Fear To Hold This Nation On Course Until We Rediscovered Our Faith In Ourselves.

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.

Honesty May Not Be The Best Policy, But It Is Worth Trying Once In A While.

But More Than Anything Else, We Have Learned That Legal Assistance For The Poor, When Properly Provided, Is One Of The Most Constructive Ways To Help Them Help Themselves.

Well, I Screwed It Up Real Good, Didn't I?

While Technically I Did Not Commit A Crime, An Impeachable Offense... These Are Legalisms, As Far As The Handling Of This Matter Is Concerned; It Was So Botched Up, I Made So Many Bad Judgments. The Worst Ones, Mistakes Of The Heart, Rather Than The Head. But Let Me Say, A Man In That Top Job - He's Got To Have A Heart, But His Head Must Always Rule His Heart.

President Johnson And I Have A Lot In Common. We Were Both Born In Small Towns And We're Both Fortunate In The Fact That We Think We Married Above Ourselves.

History Is A Pathetic Junkyard Of Broken Treaties.

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

But It's Not Just The Ratty Part Of Town. The Upper Class In San Francisco Is That Way. The Bohemian Grove, Which I Attend From Time To Time - It Is The Most Faggy Goddamned Thing You Could Ever Imagine, With That San Francisco Crowd. I Can't Shake Hands With Anybody From San Francisco.

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

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 See The Face Of A Child. He Lives In A Great City. He Is Black. Or He Is White. He Is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None Of That Matters. What Matters, He's An American Child.

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.

The Jews Are Just A Very Aggressive And Abrasive And Obnoxious Personality.

As Long As I'm Sitting In The Chair, There's Not Going To Be Any Jew Appointed To That Court. No Jew Can Be Right On The Criminal-law Issue.

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.

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.

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

I Have Never Been A Quitter. To Leave Office Before My Term Is Completed Is Opposed To Every Instinct In My Body. But As President I Must Put The Interests Of America First Therefore, I Shall Resign The Presidency Effective At Noon Tomorrow.

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.

The Sky Is No Longer The Limit.

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.

You Want A Wife Who Is Intelligent, But Not Too Intelligent.

With All The Power That A President Has, The Most Important Thing To Bear In Mind Is This: You Must Not Give Power To A Man Unless, Above Everything Else, He Has Character. Character Is The Most Important Qualification The President Of The United States Can Have.

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

The Color Of Communism Was Not Red But Gray.

I'm Not Going To Be The First American President To Lose A War.

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

The Cold War Isn't Thawing; It Is Burning With A Deadly Heat. Communism Isn't Sleeping; It Is, As Always, Plotting, Scheming, Working, Fighting.

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

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

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.

The Worst Thing A Politician Can Be Is Dull. At Least I'm Interesting.

Baseball Is Great Because Anything Can Happen Through The Ninth Inning.

Anything Can Happen

Anybody Who Wants To Be An Ambassador, Wants To Pay At Least $250,000.

When I Retire I'm Going To Spend My Evenings By The Fireplace Going Through Those Boxes. There Are Things In There That Ought To Be Burned.

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

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.

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

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.

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

Positive Thinking

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

Certainly In The Next 50 Years We Shall See A Woman President, Perhaps Sooner Than You Think. A Woman Can And Should Be Able To Do Any Political Job That A Man Can Do.

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.

The Peace We Seek In The World Is Not The Flimsy Peace Which Is Merely An Interlude Between Wars, But A Peace Which Can Endure For Generations To Come. It Is Important That We Understand Both The Necessity And The Limitations Of America's Role In Maintaining That Peace. Unless We In America Work To Preserve The Peace, There Will Be No Peace. Unless We In America Work To Preserve Freedom, There Will Be No Freedom.

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

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.

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

The Important Thing Is That We Maintain Plausible Deniability.

Important Things

It Is Not Enough Just To Be For Peace. The Point Is, What Can We Do About It?

For Among Nations - As Within Nations - The Soundest Unity Is That Which Respects Diversity, And The Strongest Cohesion Is That Which Rejects Coercion.

...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.

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.

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

Bring Us Together Again.

I've Analyzed The Best I Can... And I Have Not Found An Impeachable Offense, And Therefore Resignation Is Not An Acceptable Course.

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

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.

A Public Man Must Never Forget That He Loses His Usefulness When He As An Individual, Rather Than His Policy, Becomes The Issue.

As This Long And Difficult War Ends, I Would Like To Address A Few Special Words To The American People: Your Steadfastness In Supporting Our Insistence On Peace With Honor Has Made Peace With Honor Possible.

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.

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

Extremists On The Left Tend To Be Just As Critical Of Pragmatism As Extremists On The Right.

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

Never Let Your Head Hang Down. Never Give Up And Sit Down And Grieve. Find Another Way. And Don't Pray When It Rains If You Don't Pray When The Sun Shines.

The Destiny Of Our Land, The Air We Breathe, The Water We Drink Is Not In The Mystical Hands Of An Uncontrollable Agent, It Is In Our Hands. A Future Which Brings The Balancing Of Our Resources-preserving Quality With Quantity - Is A Future Limited Only By The Boundaries Of Our Will To Get The Job Done.

And I Want You To Know That I Have No Intention Whatever Of Ever Walking Away From The Job That The People Elected Me To Do For The People Of The United States.

As Our Cities And Suburbs Relentlessly Expand, Those Priceless Open Spaces Needed For Recreation Areas Accessible To Their People Are Swallowed Up-often Forever. Unless We Preserve These Spaces While They Are Still Available, We Will Have None To Preserve.

Mr. Stevenson Has A Degree Alright-a Phd From The Acheson College Of Cowardly Communist Containment.

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.

I'm Not A Crook. I've Earned Everything I've Got.

I'd Like To See People, Instead Of Spending So Much Time On The Ethical Problem, Get After The Problems That Really Affect The People Of This Country

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.

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

It's A Piece Of Cake Until You Get To The Top. You Find You Can't Stop Playing The Game The Way You've Always Played It.

We Must Recognize That The Goal Of A Cleaner Environment Will Not Be Achieved By Rhetoric Or Moral Dedication Alone. It Will Not Be Cheap Or Easy And The Costs Will Have To Be Borne By Each Citizen, Consumer And Taxpayer. How Clean Is Clean Enough Can Only Be Answered In Terms Of How Much We Are Willing To Pay And How Soon We Seek Success... It Is Simplistic To Seek Ecological Perfection At The Cost Of Bankrupting The Very Tax-paying Enterprises Which Must Pay For The Social Advances We Seek.

No Failure Is Final Unless You Ratify It.

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.

Let Us Move From The Era Of Confrontation To The Era Of Negotiation.

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.

What A Strange Creature Man Is That He Fouls His Own Nest.

We Must Adopt Reforms Which Will Expand The Range Of Opportunities For All Americans. We Can Fulfill The American Dream Only When Each Person Has A Fair Chance To Fulfill His Own Dreams. This Means Equal Voting Rights, Equal Employment Opportunity And New Opportunities For Expanded Ownership, Because In Order To Be Secure In Their Human Rights, People Need Access To Property Rights.

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.

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

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

Our Souls Speak From Across The Miles, Intertwined, You And I.

[t]here May Be Some Truth In That If The Arabs Have Some Complaints About My Policy Towards Israel, They Have To Realize That The Jews In The U. S. Control The Entire Information And Propaganda Machine, The Large Newspapers, The Motion Pictures, Radio And Television, And The Big Companies, And There Is A Force That We Have To Take Into Consideration.

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.

In Our Own Lives, Let Each Of Us Ask — Not Just What Will Government Do For Me, But What Can I Do For Myself? In The Challenges We Face Together, Let Each Of Us Ask —not Just How Can Government Help, But How Can I Help?

I Don't Give A Damn About The Civilians.

They Put The Jewish Interest Above America's Interest And It's About Goddamn Time That The Jew In America Realizes He's An American First And A Jew Second.

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

I'm Glad I'm Not Brezhnev. Being The Russian Leader In The Kremlin. You Never Know If Someone's Tape Recording What You Say.

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 Jawbone Of An Ass Is Just As Dangerous A Weapon Today As In Sampson's Time.

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

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

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

The Great Question Of The Seventies Is, Shall We Surrender To Our Surroundings, Or Shall We Make Our Peace With Nature And Begin To Make Reparations For The Damage We Have Done To Our Air, To Our Land, And To Our Water?

You Don't Know How To Lie. If You Can't Lie, You'll Never Go Anywhere.

I Would Have Made A Good Pope.

The Environmental Agenda Before The Congress Includes Laws To Deal With Water Pollution, Pesticide Hazards, Ocean Dumping, Excessive Noise, Careless Land Development And Many Other Environmental Problems. These Problems Will Not Stand Still For Politics Or For Partisanship.

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

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.

We, This Nation Of Ours, Could Be The Richest Nation In The World. We Could Be The Freest Nation In The World - But Only If The Arts Are Alive And Flourishing Can We Experience The True Meaning Of Our Freedom, And Know The Full Glory Of The Human Spirit.

Success Is Not A Harbor But A Voyage With Its Own Perils To The Spirit. The Game Of Life Is To Come Up A Winner, To Be A Success, Or To Achieve What We Set Out To Do.

Congratulations

The Only Time In The History Of The World That We Have Had Any Extended Periods Of Peace Is When There Has Been A Balance Of Power. It Is When One Nation Becomes Infinitely More Powerful In Relation To Its Potential Competitors That The Danger Of War Arises.

You Have To Face The Fact That The Whole Problem Is Really The Blacks. The Key Is To Devise A System That Recognizes This All While Not Appearing To.

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.

We Still Think Of Air As Free. But Clean Air Is Not Free, And Neither Is Clean Water. The Price Tag On Pollution Control Is High. Through Our Years Of Past Carelessness We Incurred A Debt To Nature, And Now That Debt Is Being Called.

Law Enforcement Officers Should Use Only The Minimum Force Necessary In Dealing With Disorders When They Arise. A Human Life-the Life Of A Student, Soldier, Or Police Officer-is A Precious Thing, And The Taking Of A Life Can Be Justified Only As A Necessary And Last Resort.

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

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

Let Us Build A Structure Of Peace In The World In Which The Weak Are As Safe As The Strong In Which Each Respects The Right Of The Other To Live By A Different System In Which Those Who Would Influence Others Will Do So By The Strength Of Their Ideas, And Not By The Force Of Their Arms. Let Us Accept That High Responsibility Not As A Burden, But Gladly Gladly Because The Chance To Build Such A Peace Is The Noblest Endeavor In Which A Nation Can Engage.

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

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

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

Italy Hasn't Had A Government Since Mussolini.

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

Neil And Buzz, I Am Talking To You By Telephone From The Oval Office At The White House, And This Certainly Has To Be The Most Historic Telephone Call Ever Made. . . . Because Of What You Have Done, The Heavens Have Become A Part Of Man's World. As You Talk To Us From The Sea Of Tranquility, It Inspires Us To Redouble Our Efforts To Bring Peace And Tranquility To Earth.

For Years Politicians Have Promised The Moon. I'm The First One To Be Able To Deliver It.

The Mark Of A True Politician Is That He Is Never At A Loss For Words Because He Is Always Half-expecting To Be Asked To Make A Speech.

Remember, Always Give Your Best. Never Get Discouraged. Never Be Petty. Always Remember, Others May Hate You. But Those Who Hate You Don't Win Unless You Hate Them. And Then You Destroy Yourself.

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.

Those Few Days After Kent State Were Among The Darkest Of My Presidency.

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

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.

For One Priceless Moment In The Whole History Of Man, All Of The People On This Earth Are Truly One. One In Their Pride At What You Have Done, One In Our Prayers That You Will Return Safely To Earth.

Economic Power Is Not The Same As Strength Of National Character. Our Country May Be Rich In Goods, But We Are Poor In Spirit.

The Average American Is Just Like The Child In The Family.

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

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.

The Press Is The Enemy.

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.

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

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

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.

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

God, Of Course, Is The Greatest Philosopher Of All.

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

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.

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

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

Solutions Are Not The Answer.

My Telephone Calls And Meetings And Decisions Were Now Parts Of A Prescribed Ritual Aimed At Making Peace With The Past; His Calls, His Meetings And His Decisions Were Already The Ones That Would Shape America's Future." (on Transfer Of Power To Gerald R Ford)

Voters Quickly Forget What A Man Says.

You Must Never Be Satisfied With Losing. You Must Get Angry, Terribly Angry, About Losing. But The Mark Of The Good Loser Is That He Takes His Anger Out On Himself And Not His Victorious Opponents Or On His Teammates.

When The President Does It, That Means That It's Not Illegal.

We Shall Continue, In This Era Of Negotiation, To Work For The Limitation Of Nuclear Arms And To Reduce The Danger Of Confrontation Between The Great Powers.

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

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.

Before We Become Too Arrogant With The Most Deadly Of The Seven Deadly Sins, The Sin Of Pride, Let Us Remember That The Two Great Wars Of This Century, Wars Which Cost Twenty Million Dead, Were Fought Between Christian Nations Praying To The Same God.

We Have Been Through, Over These Years, Some Difficult Times. During The Period That I Have Served As President Of The United States, We Have Been Through Some Difficult Times Together, And I Can Only Say That The Friendship That We Have For This Nation, The Respect And The Admiration We Have For The People Of This Nation, Their Courage, Their Tenacity, Their Firmness In The Face Of Very Great Odds, Is One That Makes Us Proud To Stand With Israel, As We Have In The Past In Times Of Trouble, And Now To Work With Israel In A Better Time, A Time That We Trust Will Be A Time Of Peace.

The Ultimate Test Of A Nation's Character Is Not How It Responds To Adversity In War But How It Meets The Challenge Of Peace.

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.

Defeat Doesn't Finish A Man, Quit Does.

I Learned That The People Who Have The Cards Are Usually The Ones Who Talk The Least And The Softest; Those Who Are Bluffing Tend To Talk Loudly And Give Themselves Away.

My Concern Today Is Not With The Length Of A Person's Hair But With His Conduct.

What We Do With This Peace-whether We Preserve It And Defend It, Or Whether We Lose It And Let It Slip Away-will Be The Measure Of Our Worthiness Of The Spirit And Sacrifice Of The Hundreds Of Thousands Who Gave Their Lives In Two World Wars, Korea, And In Vietnam.

Capitalism Works Better Than It Sounds, While Socialism Sounds Better Than It Works.

The Congress, The Administration And The Public All Share A Profound Commitment To The Rescue Of Our Natural Environment, And The Preservation Of The Earth As A Place Both Habitable By And Hospitable To Man.

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.

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

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.

Millions Who Endure Poverty And Bad Government Can Now Know What They Are Missing. To See How The Other Half Lives All They Have To Do Is Switch On Their Television Sets.

I Want A Goddamn Strong Statement On Marijuana, I Mean One That Just Tears The Ass Out Of Them. You Know, Its A Funny Thing, Every One Of The Bastards That Are Out For Legalizing Marijuana Is Jewish.

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

I Played By The Rules Of Politics As I Found Them.

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

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.

Unpredictability Is The Greatest Asset A Leader Can Have.

Unpredictability

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.

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

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.

Government Can Provide Opportunity. But Opportunity Means Nothing Unless People Are Prepared To Seize It.

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

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

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

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.

If We Succeed, It Will Not Be Because Of What We Have, But It Will Be Because Of What We Are; Not Because Of What We Own, But, Rather Because Of What We Believe.

Inspirational Life

To Me, The Most Unhappy People In The World Are The People ... In Palm Beach- Going To Parties Every Night. Playing Golf Every Afternoon, Then Bridge. [they Have] No Purpose.

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

We Are Not Spending The Federal Government's Money, We Are Spending The Taxpayer's Money, And It Must Be Spent N A Way Which Guarantees His Money's Worth And Yields The Fullest Possible Benefit To The People Being Helped.

I Can See Clearly Now... That I Was Wrong In Not Acting More Decisively And More Forthrightly In Dealing With Watergate.

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

The Peace We Seek To Win Is Not Victory Over Any Other People, But The Peace That Comes "with Healing In Its Wings;" With Compassion For Those Who Have Suffered; With Understanding For Those Who Have Opposed Us; With The Opportunity For All The Peoples Of This Earth To Choose Their Own Destiny.

Make Sure You Pay Your Taxes; Otherwise You Can Get In A Lot Of Trouble.

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.

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.

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

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.

What Was Watergate? A Little Bugging!

I Believe In Building Bridges, But We Should Only Build Our End Of The Bridge.

I Believe In The Battle-whether It's The Battle Of A Campaign Or The Battle Of This Office, Which Is A Continuing Battle.

My Strong Point, If I Have A Strong Point, Is Performance. I Always Do More Than I Say. I Always Produce More Than I Promise.

Castro Couldn't Even Go To The Bathroom Unless The Soviet Union Put The Nickel In The Toilet.

Any Lady Who Is First Lady Likes Being First Lady. I Don't Care What They Say, They Like It.

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Paddy Chayefsky

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