Kennedy, John F. -- Speech, Greater Houston Ministerial Association (12 Sep...
Whatever issue may come before me as President — on birth control, divorce, censorship, gambling or any other subject — I will make my decision in accordance with these views, in accordance with what...
View ArticleKennedy, John F. -- Speech, Greater Houston Ministerial Association (12 Sep...
That is the kind of America in which I believe. And it represents the kind of Presidency in which I believe — a great office that must neither be humbled by making it the instrument of any one...
View ArticleKennedy, John F. -- Speech, American Newspaper Publishers Association (27 Apr...
No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition. And both are necessary. John F. Kennedy...
View ArticleTaft, William -- Speech, Lotus Club (16 Nov 1912)
The intoxication of power rapidly sobers off in the knowledge of its restrictions and under the prompt reminder of an ever-present and not always considerate press, as well as the kindly suggestions...
View ArticleAce, Goodman -- (Attributed)
Another fine quotation from WIST - Wish I'd Said That! . For a candidate to spend millions of dollars during the primaries to win a job that pays only $100,000 a year, doesn’t bode well for the...
View Article“America and Americans” (1966)
The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every...
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(Attributed)
Yes, Haven, most of us enjoy preaching, and I’ve got such a bully pulpit! Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) US President (1901-1909)(Attributed) In George Haven Putnam, The Works of Theodore Roosevelt,...
View ArticleIn Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman, ch. 15...
When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency. Harry S Truman...
View ArticleLetter to George Moses (14 Jun 1928)
You convey too great a compliment when you say that I have earned the right to the presidential nomination. No man can establish such an obligation upon any part of the American people. My country owes...
View ArticleSpeech, Southern Baptist Brotherhood Commission (16 Jun 1978)
You can’t 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. Jimmy Carter (b. 1924)...
View ArticleLetter to Arthur Brisbane (25 Apr 1917)
I can imagine no greater disservice to the country than to establish a system of censorship that would deny to the people of a free republic like our own their indisputable right to criticize their own...
View ArticleIn The New York Times Magazine (11 Sep 1932)
Another fine quotation from WIST - Wish I'd Said That! . The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. That’s the least of it. It is more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It...
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Inaugural address (5 Mar 1877)
He serves his party best who serves the country best. Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) American attorney, soldier, politician, US President (1877-81)Inaugural address (5 Mar 1877)
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Talk About America, ch. 6 (1981)
All presidents start out to run a crusade, but after a couple of years they find they are running something less heroic and much more intractable: namely, the presidency. Alistair Cooke (1908-2004)...
View ArticleLetter to Elbridge Gerry (13 May 1797)
The second office of this government is honorable & easy, the first is but a splendid misery. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President...
View ArticleLincoln, Abraham -- (Attributed)
You have heard the story, haven’t you, about the man who was tarred and feathered and carried out of town on a rail? A man in the crowd asked him how he liked it. His reply was that if it was not for...
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Johnson, Lyndon -- Letter to the Smothers Brothers (Nov 1968)
It is part of the price of leadership of this great and free nation to be the target of clever satirists. You have given the gift of laughter to our people. May we never grow so somber or...
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Mencken, H.L. -- “Bayard vs. Lionheart,” The Baltimore Evening Sun (26 Jul 1920)
As democracy is perfected, the office [of the President] represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of...
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Jackson, Andrew -- (Attributed)
I have accustomed myself to receive with respect the opinions of others, but always take the responsibility of deciding for myself. Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) American politician, general, US President...
View ArticleSchlesinger, Arthur -- The Age of Roosevelt: The Coming of the New Deal, ch....
The worst error a president can make is to assume the automatic implementation of his own decisions. In certain respects, having able subordinates aggravates that problem, since strong personalities...
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