Here is a small collection of some memorable and not so memorable quotes and quips from our Presidents and Vice Presidents.
Presidential Quotes:
"We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for
it."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national
debt."
- H. Hoover
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal..."
- Thomas Jefferson (Declaration of Independence, 1776)
"It is to secure our rights that we resort to government at all."
- Thomas Jefferson (to Francois D'Ivernois, 1795)
"The will of the people... is the only legitimate foundation of any
government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object."
- Thomas Jefferson (to Benjamin Waring, 1801)
"I may err in my measures, but never shall deflect from the intention to
fortify the public liberty by every possible means, and to put it out of the
power of the few to riot on the labors of the many."
- Thomas Jefferson (to John Tyler, 1804)
"It is more honorable to repair a wrong than to persist in it."
- Thomas Jefferson (Address to Cherokee Nation, 1806)
"Everyone must act according to the dictates of his own reason."
- Thomas Jefferson (to Samuel Miller, 1808)
"The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the
first and only legitimate object of good government."
- Thomas Jefferson (to Maryland Republicans, 1809)
"Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe."
- Thomas Jefferson (to Charles Yancey, 1816)
"We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate
any error so long as reason is left to combat it."
-Thomas Jefferson (To William Roscoe, 1820)
"Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe
alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans -- born
in this country, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace."
- John F. Kennedy (1961 Inaugural speech)
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall
pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose
any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
- John F. Kennedy (1961 Inaugural speech)
"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the
few who are rich."
- John F. Kennedy (1961 Inaugural speech)
"Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to
negotiate."
- John F. Kennedy (1961 Inaugural speech)
"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you;
ask what you can do for your country."
- John F. Kennedy (1961 Inaugural speech)
"We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not
because they are easy, but because they are hard..."
- John F. Kennedy (Speech at Rice University, September 12, 1962)
"All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and
therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words 'Ich bin ein
Berliner'."
- John F. Kennedy (Speech in West Berlin, June 26, 1963)
"Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to
mankind."
- John F. Kennedy
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent
revolution inevitable."
- John F. Kennedy
"We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the
history of the world - or to make it the last."
- John F. Kennedy
"Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan."
- John F. Kennedy
"Forgive, but never forget."
- John F. Kennedy
"A house divided against itself can not stand. I believe this government
can not endure permanently half-slave and half-free."
- Abraham Lincoln (June 17, 1858)
"Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is
what we think of it; the tree is the real thing."
- Abraham Lincoln
"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a course we believe to be just."
- Abraham Lincoln
"Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is
to be on God's side, for God is always right."
- Abraham Lincoln
"If you would win a man to your cause, fist convince him that you are
his sincere friend."
- Abraham Lincoln
"Whatever you are, be a good one."
- Abraham Lincoln
"This is a great day for France!"
- Richard Nixon (While attending Charles de Gaulle's funeral)
"A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits."
- Richard M. Nixon
"Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are
many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."
- Ronald Reagan
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933 inaugural address)
"I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood
running from the wounded... I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities
destroyed... I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and
wives. I hate war."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (Address at Chautauqua, NY, August 14, 1936)
"To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."
- Theodore Roosevelt
"If you can't convince them, confuse them."
- Harry S. Truman
"It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression
when you lose your own."
- Harry S. Truman
"I never give them hell; I just tell them the truth and they think it is hell."
- Harry S. Truman
"Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the
world together."
- Woodrow Wilson
Vice Presidential Quotes:
"Behind every successful man stands a surprised
mother-in-law."
- Hubert Humphrey
"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have
was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those
people."
J. Danforth Quayle
"If we do not succeed, then we run the risk of failure."
J. Danforth Quayle
"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being
very wasteful. How true that is."
J. Danforth Quayle
"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in
this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this
century."
J. Danforth Quayle
"One word sums up probably the responsibility of any vice president, and
that one word is 'to be prepared'."
J. Danforth Quayle
"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."
J. Danforth Quayle
"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities
in our air and water that are doing it."
J. Danforth Quayle
"It's wonderful to be here in the great state of Chicago."
J. Danforth Quayle
"The future will be better tomorrow."
J. Danforth Quayle