Herbert Hoover Quotes

The rigid volunteer rules of right and wrong in sports are second only to religious faith in moral training.

A good fisherman can secure many regenerative hours in winter, polishing up the rods and reels.

I returned to the white House after midnight more depressed than ever before. I had long since arranged to attend the World Series in Philadelphia the next day. Although I like baseball, I kept this engagement only because I felt that my presence at a sporting event might be a gesture of reassurance to a country suffering from a severe attack of 'jitters.'

I am convinced that through these measures we have reestablished confidence.

The fundamental business of the country, that is production and distribution of commodities, is on a sound and prosperous basis.

Hunger is the mother of anarchy.

Progress will march if we hold an abiding faith in the intelligence, the initiative, the character, the courage, and the divine touch in the individual. We can safeguard these ends if we give to each individual that opportunity for which the spirit of America stands.

I was for a short time on the baseball team as shortstop, where I was not so good.

Menaced by collectivist trends, we must seek revival of our strength in the spiritual foundations which are the bedrock of our republic. Democracy is the outgrowth of the religious conviction of the sacredness of every human life. On the religious side, its highest embodiment is the Bible; on the political side, the Constitution.

Be patient and calm; no one can catch fish in anger.

Engineering training deals with the exact sciences. That sort of exactness makes for truth and conscience. It might be good for the world if more men had that sort of mental start in life even if they did not pursue the profession.

Thank God she doesn't have to be confirmed by the Senate.(on the birth of his granddaughter)

The budget should be balanced not by more taxes, but by reduction of follies.

The durability of free speech and free press rests on the simple concept that it search for the truth and tell the truth.

Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

Unemployment in the sense of distress is widely disappearing. . . . We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poor-house is vanishing from among us. We have not yet reached the goal, but given a change to go forward with the policies of the last eight years, and we shall soon with he help of God be in sight of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation. There is no guarantee against poverty equal to a job for every man. That is the primary purpose of the economic policies we advocate

Through baseball we channel boys desire for exercise and let off their explosive violence without letting them get into the police court.

I want more runs in baseball itself. When you were raised on a sandlot, where the scores ran twenty-three to sixty-one, you yearn for something more than a five to two score. You know as well as I do that the excitement, temperature and decibels of any big game today rise instantly when there is someone on base. It reaches ecstasy when somebody makes a run.

Public health service should be as fully organized and as universally incorporated into our governmental system as is public education. The returns are a thousand fold in economic benefits, and infinitely more in reduction of suffering and promotion of human happiness.

We have not yet reached the goal but.. we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation.

Next to prayer, Fishing is the most personal relationship of man.

The spiritual uplift, the goodwill, cheerfulness and optimism that accompanies every expedition to the outdoors is the peculiar spirit that our people need in times of suspicion and doubt...No other organized joy has values comparable to the outdoor experience.

Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of EMERGENCY.

It is a great profession. There is the fascination of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realization in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings jobs and homes to men. Then it elevates the standards of living and adds to the comforts of life. That is the engineer's high privilege.

The joys of fishing are not confined to the hours near the water.

The imperative need of this nation at all times is the leadership of Uncommon Men or Women.

In my public statements I have earnestly urged that there rested upon government many responsibilities which affect the moral and spiritual welfare of our people. The participation of women in elections has produced a keener realization of the importance of these questions and has contributed to higher national ideals. Moreover, it is through them that our national ideals are ingrained in our children.

We need to add to the three R's, namely Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic, a fourth--- RESPONSIBILITY.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

I was not able to work up much enthusiasm over the ball game, and in the midst of it I was handed a note informing me of the sudden death of Senator Dwight morrow. He had proved a great pillar of strength in the senate and his death was a great loss to the country and to me. I left the ballpark with the chant of the crowd ringing in my ears, 'We Want Beer!'

You will expect me to discuss the late election. Well, as nearly as I can learn, we did not have enough votes on our side.

No public man can be just a little crooked. There is no such thing as a no-man's land between honesty and dishonesty.

But I would emphasize again that social and economic solutions, as such, will not avail to satisfy the aspirations of the people unless they conform with the traditions of our race, deeply grooved in their sentiments through a century and a half of struggle for ideals of life that are rooted in religion and fed from purely spiritual springs.

About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.

Honest difference of views and honest debate are not disunity. They are the vital process of policy among free men.

Never worry about anything that is past. Charge it up to experience and forget the trouble. There are always plenty of troubles ahead, so don't turn and look back on any behind you.

The sixth grade made my life successful by preparing me for the seventh and the seventh by preparing me for the eighth and so on. May it do the same for you.

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

Reports to the Surgeon General represent the final word upon the efficient and devoted sense of responsibility of our people in this obligation to our fellow citizens. Overwhelmingly they confirm the fact that the general mortality rate, infant mortality rate, epidemics, the disease rate - are less than in normal times. There is but one explanation. That is, that through an aroused sense of public responsibility, those in destitution and their children are receiving actually more adequate care than even in normal times.

Truth alone can stand the guns of criticism.

Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

Whatever doubt there may be as to the quality or purpose of our free speech we certainly have ample volumes in production.

I SEND YOU MY HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS UPON BEGINNING THE THIRTIETH YEAR OF YOUR GREAT CAREER AS MANAGER OF THE NEW YORK GIANTS, IN WHICH YOU HAVE DONE SO MUCH TO UPHOLD THE TRADITIONS OF CLEAN SPORTSMANSHIP IN THE MOST BELOVED NATIONAL GAME.

My boyhood ambition was to be able to earn my own living, without the help of anybody, anywhere.

I suppose I could have called in the whole of the Army, but what was the use? All I had to do was call in Main Street itself.

I am willing to pledge myself that if the time should ever come that the voluntary agencies of the country together with the localand state governments are unable to find resources with which to prevent hunger and sufferingI will ask the aid of every resource of the Federal Government.... I have the faith in the American people that such a day will not come.