Presidential Quotations

It is not strange... to mistake change for progress.

Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

Political pandering comes in all shapes and sizes, but every four years the presidential primary bring us in contact with its purest form - praising ethanol subsidies amid the corn fields of Iowa.

Let it be henceforth proclaimed to the world that man's conscience was created free; that he is no longer accountable to his fellow man for his religious opinions, being responsible therefore only to his God.

The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men.

Northwestern's alumni list is truly impressive. This university has graduated best-selling authors, Olympians, presidential candidates, Grammy winners, Peabody winners, Emmy winners, and that's just me!

War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.

Of all presidential perks, the pardon power has a special significance. It is just the kind of authority that would attract the special attention of someone obsessed with himself and his own ability to influence events.

My first presidential primary vote was for Bobby Kennedy.

Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.

Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.

During the presidential primaries of 1940, I received a request from the Democratic National Committee to sing God Bless America before the speeches.

In the time of darkest defeat, victory may be nearest.

America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.

Somebody asked me about the current choice we're being given in the presidential election. I said, Well, it's like two of the scariest movies I can imagine.

Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.

The legions of reporters who cover politics don't want to quit the clash and thunder of electoral combat for the dry duty of analyzing the federal budget. As a consequence, we have created the perpetual presidential campaign.

May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.

I don't know much about Americanism, but it's a damn good word with which to carry an election.

Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.

There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress than I had any conception of, before I became President of the U.S.

Communism is a hateful thing, and a menace to peace and organized government.

Mitt Romney has won the 2012 presidential nomination by promising Republicans that he would end a so-called 'culture of dependency' on welfare - welfare defined as 'free stuff' and food stamps for poor folks, not tax breaks for Big Oil or tax shelters for Bain executives.

New fathers, political prisoners, traumatised presidential aides, resolute schoolboys, MEPs addressing unfriendly chambers - we all find that Shakespeare has magically anticipated our precise circumstances. How he was possible, I still don't understand; but there isn't a day I'm not grateful that he speaks to me in my own language.

The bud of victory is always in the truth.

With me it is exceptionally true that the Presidency is no bed of roses.

No presidential candidate should visit Las Vegas without condemning organized gambling.

As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it.

One of the tests of the civilization of people is the treatment of its criminals.

There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.

That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime - to set an example - and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history.

At the unveiling at the White House of the presidential portrait, President Bush pointed out that Hillary Clinton was the first sitting Senator in history to have her portrait hanging in the White House.

Legislation can neither be wise nor just which seeks the welfare of a single interest at the expense and to the injury of many and varied interests.

It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact. In fact, in every presidential election since 1950 - except Goldwater in '64 - the Republican would have won, if only the men had voted.

As you can imagine I'm disappointed as anything that I was not selected to be the presidential running mate. And I find it continually appalling that it would be a radical thing to have a woman on the ticket.

We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.

There is no excitement anywhere in the world, short of war, to match the excitement of the American presidential campaign.

We Americans have no commission from God to police the world.

Let's not overlook, though, what we do know about the campaign finance scandal, and the fact the Chinese were involved in our presidential campaign and our congressional campaigns.

Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.

The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation.

We have nothing in our history or position to invite aggression; we have everything to beckon us to the cultivation of relations of peace and amity with all nations.

In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.

The 2004 Election marks the first time in modern political history that Republican voter turnout matched Democratic turnout in a presidential election year.

Because liberalism typically doesn't sell in American presidential politics, liberal candidates tend to run as culturally conservative centrists.

But presidential approval also became a surrogate measure of national unity and patriotism.

As lawmakers, we must assure the people of America that our nation will not experience the nightmare of the 2000 presidential election.

Every now and then, a presidential candidate surprises us with a truly human and honest moment.

I am suspending my presidential campaign, because of the continued distractions, the continued hurt caused on me and my family, not because we are not fighters. Not because I'm not a fighter.

Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide.

I am heartily rejoiced that my term is so near its close. I will soon cease to be a servant and will become a sovereign.

I debated in high school! If you told things that weren't true or just made things out of whole cloth, you were penalized. It's too bad they don't apply the same standards to presidential candidates as they do to high school students.

The 2004 presidential election that saw George W. Bush win with 51 percent of the vote was the last one Republicans will ever win with the overwhelmingly white and male coalition they have now.

I had supported Governor George W. Bush over Senator John McCain in the 2000 Rhode Island presidential primary.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

It is our character that supports the promise of our future - far more than particular government programs or policies.

Al Gore adopted three utterly different personas in three national presidential debates.

I have had many troubles in my life, but the worst of them never came.

The happiness of society is the end of government.

During my 2004 presidential campaign, I was fond of saying that it was high time for the Christian right to meet the right Christians.

Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust.

I am committed to ensure that our 2008 Republican presidential candidates forthrightly address issues of importance to the African-American community.

The world is not going to be saved by legislation.

The fact is, with every friendship you make, and every bond of trust you establish, you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world. That is so important. So when you study abroad, you're actually helping to make America stronger.

A President's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right.

I am now a member of the private sector. I'm happy. I've got a little foundation. You never say never, but I may have had my last race and that was the Presidential race. I think that you only get one shot.

Vice President Dick Cheney reportedly has been disturbed over what he sees as the erosion of presidential powers since the Watergate scandal and has urged Bush to take a stronger stand against what Cheney sees as congressional intrusions into the executive branch.

The weak economy, widening income inequality, gridlock in Congress and a presidential election: Those were perhaps the dominant economic and political themes of 2012.

When one may pay out over two million dollars to presidential and Congressional campaigns, the U.S. government is virtually up for sale.

A presidential debate is a job interview. And voters look for certain traits in people applying to be president.

Even at the end of a presidential election campaign, we have no way to know what Mitt Romney really believes.

Sooner or later, I need to begin to do what any candidate does in a presidential race; I need to begin to win.

No Republican presidential candidate is a viable option for pro-choice voters of any political philosophy - Democrat, Republican or otherwise.

Every four years in the presidential election, some new precedent is broken.

If the power to do hard work is not a skill, it's the best possible substitute for it.

I've always enjoyed reading history, particularly presidential biographies.

American secretaries of state have typically been more buttoned up than bon vivant, but John Quincy Adamss diplomatic successes - bigger than anything presidential or legislative that he achieved - still surprise a student of his personality.

Political consultants are pugilists, masters in the dark art of negativity. Which is why it's surprising to hear Democrats such as Steve McMahon and Republicans like Rich Galen urging their presidential candidates to be more, well, positive.

The fact is, presidential politics has become a game of inches.

When you are in any contest, you should work as if there were - to the very last minute - a chance to lose it. This is battle, this is politics, this is anything.

It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't.

I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.

A government of laws, and not of men.

I'm pretty good at sticking to what I know. You don't see me social commentating on health-care or presidential debates. I talk about what I know because I'm petrified of being wrong.

In the 2004 presidential election, we saw a wonderful example of citizens making contributions. In fact, individual giving to both the Kerry and Bush campaigns was the highest in our nation's history.

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

By the time a man gets to be presidential material, he's been bought ten times over.

Liberty may be endangered by the abuse of liberty, but also by the abuse of power.

I perfectly understood President Obama's attitude throughout the French presidential campaign. He had no reason to distance himself from Nicolas Sarkozy. It's the basic solidarity that leaders who worked together owe to each other.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

What if Barack Obama established a Presidential Advisory Committee that would meet once every couple of months, bringing together the former presidents for a conference in order to seek their collective wisdom? There is a wealth of experience in former presidents that generally goes untapped.

Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.

I wish I had known more firsthand about the concerns and problems of American businesspeople while I was a U.S. senator and later a presidential nominee. That knowledge would have made me a better legislator and a more worthy aspirant to the White House.

In the execution of Presidential decisions work to be true to his views, in fact and tone.

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.

This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.

I feel in the depths of my soul that it is the highest, most sacred, and most irreversible part of my obligation to preserve the union of these states, although it may cost me my life.

Not a season passes without new disclosures showing Nixon's numerous attempts at criminal use of his presidential powers and in fact the scorn he held for the rule of law.

We must teach our children to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons.