All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days nor in the life of this Administration nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
Under the doctrine of the 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.
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once The Unnecessary War.
I hold it to be one of the distinguishing excellences of elective over hereditary successions that the talents which nature has provided in sufficient proportion should be selected by the society for the govenment of their affairs rather than that this should be be transmitted through the loins of knaves and fools passing from the debauches of the table to those of the bed.
President N.S.W. Division of the United Nations Association: The best way to create a radical is to hit a conservative person over the head with a police truncheon.
PRESIDENT n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom and of whom only it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.
Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow my footsteps and preside over the White House as the presidents spouse. I wish him well!
It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth and if we can teach our children to honor natures gifts the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.
That this gentleman [President John Adams] ought not to be the object of the federal wish is with me reduced to demonstration. His administration has already very materially disgraced and sunk the government. There are defects in his character which must inevitably continue to do this more and more. And if he is supported by the federal party his party must in the issue fall with him.
Letter to Horace Greeley. August 22 1862 My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.
Every answer he [President John Adams] gives to his addressers unmasks more and more his principles and views. His language to the young men at Philadelphia is the most abominable and degrading that could fall from the lips of the first magistrate of an independent people and particularly from a Revolutionary patriot.
In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents worried five of them to death impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails we hold an election and assassinate their character.’08-02-2010
Uncritical reverence for the Founding Fathers was less ubiquitous while they actually lived…. The Reign of Terror that raged in America during the latter end of the Washington Administration and the whole of that of Adams is enveloped in mystery to me. That there were men in the Government hostile to the representative system was once their toast though it is now their overthrow and therefore the fact is established against them.
What a waste it is to lose ones mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is. Vice President Dan Quayle winning friends while speaking to the United Negro College Fund 5/9/89 This gem has been added toBartletts Familiar Quotations.
In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time that a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection.
When it was reported to General Washington that the army was frequently indulging in swearing he immediately sent out the following order: The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing a vice little known heretofore in the American army is growing into fashion. Let the men and officers reflect that we can not hope for the blessing of heaven on our army if we insult it by our impiety and folly.
America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.
No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all- disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report ….
All this will not be finished in the first one hundred days. Nor will it be finished in the first one thousand days nor in the life of this Administration nor even perhaps in our lifetime on this planet. But let us begin.
In America anybody can be president. Thats one of the risks you take.
The President has kept all of the promises he intended to keep.
Under the doctrine of the 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.
One day President Roosevelt told me that he was asking publicly for suggestions about what the war should be called. I said at once The Unnecessary War.
My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.
Arms in the hands of citizens [may] be used at individual discretion … in private self-defense.
Study hard and you might grow up to be President. But lets face it: Even then youll never make as much money as your dog.
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I beginning to believe it.
Unlike presidential administrations problems rarely have terminal dates.
I hold it to be one of the distinguishing excellences of elective over hereditary successions that the talents which nature has provided in sufficient proportion should be selected by the society for the govenment of their affairs rather than that this should be be transmitted through the loins of knaves and fools passing from the debauches of the table to those of the bed.
We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord.
President N.S.W. Division of the United Nations Association: The best way to create a radical is to hit a conservative person over the head with a police truncheon.
On leaving the White House: If Id known how much packing Id have to do Id have run again.
PRESIDENT n. The leading figure in a small group of men of whom and of whom only it is positively known that immense numbers of their countrymen did not want any of them for President.
The office of the President is such a bastardized thing half royalty and half democracy that nobody knows whether to genuflect or spit.
Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow my footsteps and preside over the White House as the presidents spouse. I wish him well!
Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president and anyone who doesnt grow up can be vice president.
It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth and if we can teach our children to honor natures gifts the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.
Sir I would rather be right than be President.
We cant be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans…
You cant know too much but you can say too much.
That this gentleman [President John Adams] ought not to be the object of the federal wish is with me reduced to demonstration. His administration has already very materially disgraced and sunk the government. There are defects in his character which must inevitably continue to do this more and more. And if he is supported by the federal party his party must in the issue fall with him.
A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus.
You are uneasy; you never sailed with me before I see.
Letter to Horace Greeley. August 22 1862 My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.
Every answer he [President John Adams] gives to his addressers unmasks more and more his principles and views. His language to the young men at Philadelphia is the most abominable and degrading that could fall from the lips of the first magistrate of an independent people and particularly from a Revolutionary patriot.
In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents worried five of them to death impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails we hold an election and assassinate their character.’08-02-2010
Uncritical reverence for the Founding Fathers was less ubiquitous while they actually lived…. The Reign of Terror that raged in America during the latter end of the Washington Administration and the whole of that of Adams is enveloped in mystery to me. That there were men in the Government hostile to the representative system was once their toast though it is now their overthrow and therefore the fact is established against them.
What a waste it is to lose ones mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is. Vice President Dan Quayle winning friends while speaking to the United Negro College Fund 5/9/89 This gem has been added toBartletts Familiar Quotations.
I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency even if I?m in a cabinet meeting.
Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
In the fall of 1972 President Nixon announced that the rate of increase of inflation was decreasing. This was the first time that a sitting president used the third derivative to advance his case for reelection.
The President has kept all of the promises he intended to keep.
The Vice Presidency is sort of like the last cookie on the plate. Everybody insists he wont take it but somebody always does.
Any American who is prepared to run for president should automatically by definition be disqualified from ever doing so.
When it was reported to General Washington that the army was frequently indulging in swearing he immediately sent out the following order: The general is sorry to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing a vice little known heretofore in the American army is growing into fashion. Let the men and officers reflect that we can not hope for the blessing of heaven on our army if we insult it by our impiety and folly.
America has furnished to the world the character of Washington. And if our American institutions had done nothing else that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.
No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all- disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report ….