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Quotes by President
"The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things."
11
"Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and waste."
11
"Sometimes when I'm faced with an atheist, I am tempted to invite him to the greatest gourmet dinner that one could ever serve, and when we have finished eating that magnificent dinner, to ask him if he believes there's a cook."
11
"I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it."
11
"Not to find out new principles, or new arguments, never before thought of . . . but to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so plain and firm as to command their assent, and to justify ourselves in the independent stand we are compelled to take."
11
"No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy - well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I'm President, I never will."
11
"You and I are told we must choose between a left or right, but I suggest there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down. Up to man's age-old dream -- the maximum of individual freedom consistent with order --or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism. Regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would sacrifice freedom for security have embarked on this downward path."
11
"The poor who have neither property, friends, nor strength to labor are boarded in the houses of good farmers, to whom a stipulated sum is annually paid. To those who are able to help themselves a little or have friends from whom they derive some succor, inadequate however to their full maintenance, supplementary aids are given which enable them to live comfortably in their own houses or in the houses of their friends. Vagabonds without visible property or vocation, are placed in work houses, where they are well clothed, fed, lodged, and made to labor."
11
"The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind."
11
"And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever."
10
"The whole commerce between master and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unremitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. Our children see this, and learn to imitate it."
10
"We must never despair our situation has been compromising before and it has changed for the better so I trust it will again. If difficulties arise we must put forth new exertion and proportion our efforts to the exigencies of the times."
10
"An association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which has never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry."
10
"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace."
10
"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."
10
"It is an axiom in my mind, that our liberty can never be safe but in the hands of the people themselves, and that too of the people with a certain degree of instruction. This it is the business of the State to effect, and on a general plan."
10
"All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollection of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them."
10
"This is what I found out about religion: It gives you courage to make decisions you must make in a crisis and then the confidence to leave the result to a Higher Power. Only by trust in God can a man carrying responsibility find repose."
10
"Thomas Jefferson asked himself "In what country on earth would you rather live He first answered "Certainly in my own where are all my friends my relations and the earliest and sweetest affections and recollections of my life. But he continued "which would be your second choice His answer "France."
10
"War is as much a punishment to the punisher as to the sufferer."
10
"No knowledge can be more satisfactory to a man than that of his own frame its parts their functions and actions."
10
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
10
"I believe in the battle-whether it's the battle of a campaign or the battle of this office, which is a continuing battle."
10
"Promote, then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened."
10
"Whoever won't fight when the President calls him, deserves to be kicked back in his hole and kept there."
10
"If I were starting life over again I am inclined to think that I would go into the advertising business in preference to almost any other. The general raising of standards of modern civilization among all groups of people during the past half-century would have been impossible without that spreading of the knowledge of higher standards by means of advertising."
10
"Americans are rising to the tasks of history, and they expect the same of us."
10
"Doing what's right isn't the problem. It is knowing what's right."
10
"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."
10
"The American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press."
10
"Double-no triple-our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth."
10
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