Presidential Quotes

John Adams
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

John Quincy Adams
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality.

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.

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

George Bush, Sr.
Any definition of success or of a successful life must include service to others.

Stand up for something. Give something back. Take on big challenges. A person derives an inner pride by doing something with their lives and contributing to something bigger than oneself.

I don't feel the compulsion to be the glamour, one shot, smart comment kind of guy. I think experience, steadiness, knowing how to interact with people is the way to get things done better.

George W. Bush
Recognizing and confronting our history is important. Transcending our history is essential. We are not limited by what we have done, or what we have left undone. We are limited only by what we are willing to do.

In the final analysis, there is no overcoming without faith be it drugs or alcohol or poverty or selfishness or flawed social policy.

I don't need a poll or a focus group to know what I believe.

I'm living proof you can get a C average and still succeed.

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

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

Bill Clinton
If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.

Dwight D. Eisenhower
Worry is a word that I don’t allow myself to use.

We succeed only as we identify in life, or in war, or in anything else, a single overriding objective, and make all other considerations bend to that one objective.

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Men grow in stature only as they daily rededicate themselves to a noble faith.

Pull the string, and it will follow wherever you wish. Push it, and it will go nowhere at all.

Our real problem, then, is not our strength today; it is rather the vital necessity of action today to ensure our strength tomorrow.

When you appeal to force, one thing you must never do is lose.

The Bible is endorsed by the ages. Our civilization is built upon its words.

If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom.

Gerald Ford
To me, success is not something to be measured in power or fortune or fame. I believe a life of service to others is a successful life.

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

The men who succeed best in public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.

Things don’t turn up in this world until someone turns them up.

Alexander Hamilton
Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.

Warren G. Harding
Ambition is a commendable attribute without which no man succeeds. Only inconsiderate ambition imperils.

Andrew Jackson
One man with courage makes a majority.

Thomas Jefferson
I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

It is neither wealth nor splendor, but tranquility and occupation which give happiness.

Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals have an intimate connection.

The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue.

Without virtue, happiness cannot be.

Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.

The moral sense [is] the first excellence of well organized man.

The greatest honor of a man is in doing good to his fellow men, not in destroying them.

A conviction that we are right accomplishes half the difficulty of correcting wrong.

I have ever deemed it more honorable and more profitable, too, to set a good example than to follow a bad one.

I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

He does best in God's great world who does his best in his own little world.

I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.

Whenever you are to do a thing, though it can never be known but to yourself, ask yourself how you would act were all the world looking at you, and act accordingly.

When angry, count ten before you speak; if very angry, count a hundred.

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.

Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.

In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.

Lyndon B. Johnson
Men who have worked together to reach the stars are not likely to descend together into the depths of war and desolation.

You ain't learnin' nothin' when you're talkin'.

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose.

John F. Kennedy
The only unchangeable certainty is that nothing is certain or unchangeable.

You know nothing for sure...except the fact that you know nothing for sure.

We should not let our fears hold us back from pursuing our hopes.

Once you say you are going to settle for second, that's what happens to you.

When written in Chinese, the word crisis is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.

The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.

In your hands, my fellow citizens, more than in mine, will rest the final success or failure of our course. Since this country was founded, each generation of Americans has been summoned to give testimony to its national loyalty. The graves of young Americans who answered the call to service surround the globe.

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter the words, but to live by them.

Abraham Lincoln
Determine the thing that can and shall be done, and then we shall find a way.

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other one thing.

He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help.

I don't like that man very much.....I'm going to have to get to know him better.

Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power.

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be new views.

If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.

Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves.

My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.

Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.

The better part of one's life consists of friendships.

Die when I may, I want it said of me that I plucked a weed and planted a flower
wherever I thought a flower would grow.

My concern is not whether God is on our side; my great concern is to be on God's side.

When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion.

I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day.

It is better to keep one's mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and resolve all doubt.

With the fearful strain that is on me night and day, if I did not laugh I should die.

Were it not for my little jokes, I could not bear the burdens of this office.

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.

No matter how much cats fight, there always seem to be plenty of kittens.

The difference between history's boldest accomplishments and its most staggering failures is often, simply, the diligent will to persevere.

And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.

It is difficult to make a man miserable while he feels worthy of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him.

James Monroe
A little flattery will support a man through great fatigue

Richard Nixon
What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will live in, whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes, is ours to determine by our actions and our choices.

Ronald Reagan
No arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

There are no such things as limits to growth, because there are no limits on the human capacity for intelligence, imagination and wonder.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don't interfere.

Trust, but verify.

Within the covers of the Bible are all the answers for all the problems men face.

The very key to our success has been our ability, foremost among nations, to preserve our lasting values by making change work for us rather than against us.

Franklin D. Roosevelt
Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own mind.

Lives of nations are determined not by the count of years, but by the lifetime of the human spirit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits.

It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with strong and active faith.

Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.

Teddy Roosevelt
Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the great twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

Your attitude about who you are and what you have is a very little thing that makes a very big difference.

Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.

There has never yet been a man in our history who led a life of ease whose name is worth remembering.

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell 'em, "Certainly I can!" and get busy and find out how to do it.

Of course the all important thing to keep in mind is that if we have not both strength and virtue we shall fail.

I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart, and that is softness of head.

Do what you can with what you have where you are.

I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character!

The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.

It is hard to fail, but it is worse to never have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort.

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

Get action. Do things; be sane, don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody; get action.

It is impossible to win the great prizes of life without running risks.

Pray not for lighter burdens but for stronger backs.

Harry S. Truman
Leadership is the ability to get people to do what they don't want to do and like it.

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.

A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.

George Washington
Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation, for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company.

The consideration that human happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected will always continue to prompt me to promote the former by inculcating the practice of the latter.

I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education which I received from my mother.

To err is natural; to rectify error is glory.

Labour to keep alive in your breast that little spark of celestial fire--conscience.

Woodrow Wilson
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it.

There is no higher religion than human service. To work for the common good is the greatest creed.

We came to America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of things that divide, and to make sure of the things that unite.

The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.

We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true.

All things come to him who waits - provided he knows what he is waiting for.

Calvin Coolidge
One of the first lessons a president has to learn is that every word he says weighs a ton.