George H. W. Bush Quotes

There is no greater advocate of perestroika than the president of the United States.

You do not reform a world by ignoring it.

As you know, in the 2000 campaign I articulated a point of view that we ought to have personal savings accounts for younger workers that would make sure those younger workers receive benefits equal to or greater than that which is expected, ... I still maintain the same position.

I have spoken of a thousand points of light, of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the Nation, doing good.

We are not the sum of our possessions.

I like a colorful sock. I'm a sock man.

But I see history as a book with many pages--and each day we fill a page with acts of hopefulness and meaning.

I try to hold my charisma in check.

If you have a plan, we want to hear it. Tell your community leaders, your local officials, your governor, and your team in Washington. Believe me, your ideas count. An individual can make a difference.

By the grace of God, we won the Cold War.

We consider it vital that the community of nations be drawn together in an orderly, disciplined, rational way to review the history of our global environment, to assess the potential for future climate change, and to develop effective programs.

Education is the key to opportunity. It's a ticket out of poverty.

I hope I stand for antibigotry, anti-Semitism, antiracism. This is what drives me.

When America is stronger, the world is safer.

Well, I think everybody is frustrated by the finances of the U.N. and the inability to solve problems of war and peace.

It's no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another.

I got poked in the left eye on the collision. My vision is blurry in that eye. I had to play. It was for coach, and because it was a district game.

A volunteer is a person who can see what others cannot see; who can feel what most do not feel.

Tell me your Dreams and I'll write you a Fantasy. Tell me your Fantasies and I'll paint you a Dream for the minds eye you can get lost in!

Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective- a new world order-can emerge... We are now in sight of a United Nations that performs as envisioned by its founders.

Communism didn't fall. It was pushed.

And I'm not a student of religion, but I don't find anything in what the principal teachings of Islam that put us in contradiction at all. In fact, the principles are the same as what-we have a diverse religious culture. But it's kindness, it's be good to your neighbor, it's love, and it's take care of children. It's all these things that-so there's no anti-Islam.

The anchor in our world today is freedom, holding us steady in times of change, a symbol of hope to all the world.

People must be free to work, to save, to own their own home, to take risks, to invest in each other and, in essence, to control their own lives.

I know my serve stinks, but I was a pretty good tennis player.

International exchanges are not a great tide to sweep away all differences, but they will slowly wear away at the obstacles to peace as surely as water wears away a hard stone.

I think 9/11 guaranteed that national security is going to be in the forefront of every election.

The glory of being a carrier pilot has certainly worn off.

I think the 24-hour news cycle has helped exaggerate the differences between the parties. You can always find someone on TV somewhere carping about something. That didn't happen 20 years ago.

Ozone Man, Ozone. He's crazy, way out, far out, man.

I am for an immigration policy that's welcoming and upholds the law.

Whoever says Americas best days are behind it are looking the wrong direction.

Let the shameful walls of exclusion finally come tumbling down.

A new breeze is blowing, and a nation refreshed by freedom stands ready to push on. There is new ground to be broken, and new action to be taken. There are times when the future seems thick as a fog; you sit and wait, hoping the mists will lift and reveal the right path. But this is a time when the future seems a door you can walk right through into a room called tomorrow.

The Persian Gulf crisis has forged a new world order in which the superpower adversaries of the Cold War now stand united to reverse Iraq's conquest of Kuwait.

I worry about international terror as a method for bringing about political change or sociological change in different countries. And this concerns me because our homeland is not - we see now, is not immune from this kind of dastardly attack. And so I worry about that a lot.

A time of historic change is no time for recklessness.

Somebody said, "Well, you're going to write your definitive book about your life, biography." No, I'm not. I haven't done that. I wrote a book of letters which gives an insight into the real me as opposed to the public perceptions of me. But I'm convinced historians will figure out the things we got wrong and hopefully the things we got right.

Abraham Lincoln truly inspired me. It wasn’t just the freeing of the slaves, he kept the Union together. Some people even forget that today. What I think inspired me was the fact that in spite of being the president of the United States he retained a certain down-to-earth quality. He never got to be a big shot, and he cared about people.

There are things we can do to give us a little more attention.... I've got to look more frantic.

It's family, and it's faith, and it's friends, and it's not the glamour of the Presidency, or the wonder of going to receive the Nobel Prize. All those are important, of course. But maybe it's just that I'm 71 years old now. It's family, and it's faith, and it's friends. I would tell them that. Don't forget that. In your brilliance, don't turn your back on your friends. Don't think you're entitled to something, you're smarter than the next guy.

You know I vowed when I became President not to talk about the loneliest toughest job in the world and I didn't.

Unlike Churchill, I have no plans to shape history. . . . Socrates gave advice

If the people were to ever find out what we have done, we would be chased down the streets and lynched.

The day will come - and it is not far off - when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.

The world can therefore seize the opportunity (the Persian Gulf crisis) to fulfill the long held promise of a New World Order where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind.

I was offered a job on Wall Street by my uncle. But I wanted to get out. Make-it-on-my-own kinda thing.

Learning is good in and of itself...the mothers of the Jewish ghettoes of the east would pour honey on a book so the children would know that learning is sweet. And the parents who settled hungry Kansas would take their children in from the fields when a teacher came.