Presidential Quotes

• 

  If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.

  Ronald Reagan

  Inspirational, God, Country

  Remarks at a Dallas Ecumenical Prayer Breakfast, delivered 23 August 1984 at Reunion Arena, Dallas, TX

  421 Copy quote

  Show source

• Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Peace, Freedom

  Address on first anniversary of Alliance for Progress, 13 Mar. 1962

  272 Copy quote

  Show source

• My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Country

  Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1961

  232 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

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

  John Quincy Adams

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  897 Copy quote

• Now more than ever the people are responsible for the character of their Congress. If that body be ignorant, reckless, and corrupt, it is because the people tolerate ignorance, recklessness, and corruption.

  James A. Garfield

  Inspirational, Ignorance, Character

  Garfield, James A. (1882). “The works of James Abram Garfield. Volume 2”, p.486, Best Books on

  147 Copy quote

  Show source

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

  Jimmy Carter

  Inspirational, Change, Environmental

  Bettina Stiekel, Jimmy Carter, Various (2003). “The Nobel Book of Answers: The Dalai Lama, Mikhail Gorbachev, Shimon Peres, and Other Nobel Prize Winners Answer Some of Life's Most Intriguing Questions for Young People”, Simon and Schuster

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.

  Millard Fillmore

  Country, People, Political

  Letter to Henry Clay (11 November 1844); as quoted in "Presidential Wit from Washington to Johnson" edited by Bill Adler, 1966.

  127 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn't sit for a month.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Funny, Life

  Theodore Roosevelt (2015). “Theodore Roosevelt on Bravery: Lessons from the Most Courageous Leader of the Twentieth Century”, p.4, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

  270 Copy quote

  Show source

• We must teach our children to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons.

  William J. Clinton

  Children, Patriotic, Weapons

  49 Copy quote
• 

  I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Friendship, Sad, Philosophy

  Thomas Jefferson (2010). “The Works of Thomas Jefferson: 1799-1803”, p.130, Cosimo, Inc.

  339 Copy quote

  Show source
• 

  Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Barack Obama (2008). “An American Story: The Speeches of Barack Obama : a Primer”, Independent Publishing Group

  1268 Copy quote

  Show source

• The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Money, Economic Inequality, History

  Second Inaugural Address, 20 Jan. 1937

  299 Copy quote

  Show source

• History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Veterans Day, Freedom, Military

  1953 Inaugural address, 20 Jan.

  151 Copy quote

  Show source

• He who permits himself to tell a lie once, finds it much easier to do it a second and third time, till at length it becomes habitual; he tells lies without attending to it, and truths without the world's believing him. This falsehood of the tongue leads to that of the heart, and in time depraves all its good dispositions.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Lying, Believe, Heart

  Thomas Jefferson, John Dewey (2008). “The Essential Jefferson”, p.81, Courier Corporation

  45 Copy quote

  Show source

• The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Inspirational, Leadership, Bullying

  First Inaugural Address, 4 Mar. 1933 See Francis Bacon 7; Montaigne 4; Thoreau 16; Wellington 3

  315 Copy quote

  Show source

• America has begun a spiritual reawakening. Faith and hope are being restored. Americans are turning back to God. Church attendance is up. Audiences for religious books and broadcasts are growing. And I do believe that he has begun to heal our blessed land.

  Ronald Reagan

  Spiritual, Religious, Believe

  17 Copy quote

• To educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Leadership, Education, Business

  84 Copy quote
• 

  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.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Freedom, Patriotic, Vaccines

  496 Copy quote

• Let us labor for the security of free thought, free speech, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and equal rights and privileges for all men, irrespective of nationality, color, or religion;.... leave the matter of religious teaching to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contribution. Keep church and state forever separate.

  Ulysses S. Grant

  Religious, Teaching, School

  228 Copy quote

• 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.

  William J. Clinton

  Inspirational, Perseverance, Attitude

  165 Copy quote

• We are citizens of the world. The tragedy of our times is that we do not know this.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Tragedy, Citizens, World

  173 Copy quote

• Corruption is the enemy of development, and of good governance. It must be got rid of. Both the government and the people at large must come together to achieve this national objective.

  Pratibha Patil

  Inspirational, Government, People

  Pratibha Patils farewell speech to the nation, www.abplive.in. July 24, 2012.

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• A government of laws, and not of men.

  John Adams

  Men, Law, Judicial Power

  "Novanglus Papers" no. 7 (1774). Almost certainly derived from James Harrington, but Adams's use of the phrase gave it wide circulation in the United States. He also used "government of laws, and not of men" in the Declaration of Rights drafted for the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780. See Cox 1; Gerald Ford 3; James Harrington 1

  94 Copy quote

  Show source

• To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular church, or because, like Abraham Lincoln, he has not avowed his allegiance to any church, is an outrage against the liberty of conscience, which is one of the foundations of American life.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Church, Liberty, Citizens

  Theodore Roosevelt (1908). “Americanism in Religion”

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Jobs, Patriotic

  Barack Obama (2009). “Barack Obama: Speeches on the Road to the White House”

  34 Copy quote

  Show source