Richard M. Nixon Quotes

For among nations - as within nations - the soundest unity is that which respects diversity, and the strongest cohesion is that which rejects coercion.

Black Americans, no more than white Americans, they do not want more government programs which perpetuate dependency. They don't want to be a colony in a nation.

The one thing sure about politics is that what goes up comes down and what goes down often comes up.

Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

The average American is just like the child in the family. You give him some responsibility and he is going to amount to something. He is going to do something. If, on the other hand, you make him completely dependent and pamper him and cater to him too much, you are going to make him soft, spoiled and eventually a very weak individual.

For its part, Government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways - to the voices of quiet anguish, to voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart, to the injured voices, and the anxious voices, and the voices that have despaired of being heard.

Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively, and if after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice, and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

We don't owe the blacks a damn thing, anyway.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all of the people on this earth are truly one. One in their pride at what you have done, one in our prayers that you will return safely to earth.

I like the job I have, but if I had to live my life over again, I would like to have ended up a sports writer.

The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time - it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine.

But more than anything else, we have learned that legal assistance for the poor, when properly provided, is one of the most constructive ways to help them help themselves.

The only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

Our peaceful borders and our peaceful history are important symbols, to be sure. What they symbolize, however, is the spirit of respect and restraint which allow us to cooperate, despite our differences, in way which help us both.

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.

We, this nation of ours, could be the richest nation in the world. We could be the freest nation in the world - but only if the arts are alive and flourishing can we experience the true meaning of our freedom, and know the full glory of the human spirit.

Neil and Buzz, I am talking to you by telephone from the Oval Office at the White House, and this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. . . . Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth.

Nobody is a friend of ours. Let's face it.

The Soviet Union began by banishing God. The United States began as a community of people who wanted to worship God as they chose. . . Man does not live by bread alone. Those in the United States whose desire to create a strictly secular society is as strong as Lenin's was should study this Cold War lesson closely. Communism was defeated by an alliance spearheaded by 'one nation under God.'

I seriously doubt if we will ever have another war. This is probably the very last one.

Once one determines that he or she has a mission in life, that's it's not going to be accomplished without a great deal of pain, and that the rewards in the end may not outweigh the pain -if you recognize historically that always happens, then when it comes, you survive it.

If we succeed, it will not be because of what we have, but it will be because of what we are; not because of what we own, but, rather because of what we believe.

When I grow up, I want to be an honest lawyer so things like that can't happen.

Let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.

Yet we can maintain a free society only if we recognize that in a free society no one can win all the time. No one can have his own way all the time, and no one is right all the time.

The three most difficult words to speak are, "I was wrong."

I learned that the people who have the cards are usually the ones who talk the least and the softest; those who are bluffing tend to talk loudly and give themselves away.

Until he has been part of a cause larger than himself, no man is truly whole.

My strong point, if I have a strong point, is performance. I always do more than I say. I always produce more than I promise.

Before we become too arrogant with the most deadly of the seven deadly sins, the sin of pride, let us remember that the two great wars of this century, wars which cost twenty million dead, were fought between Christian nations praying to the same God.

I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.

Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency.

Federal and state laws (should) be changed to no longer make it a crime to possess marijuana for private use.

I really believe life is simple. It's all the other people that make things complicated.

The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.

I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business.

The destiny of our land, the air we breathe, the water we drink is not in the mystical hands of an uncontrollable agent, it is in our hands. A future which brings the balancing of our resources-preserving quality with quantity - is a future limited only by the boundaries of our will to get the job done.

Government can provide opportunity. But opportunity means nothing unless people are prepared to seize it.

We must never forget that if the war in Vietnam is lost ... the right of free speech will be extinguished throughout the world.

In our own lives, let each of us ask — not just what will government do for me, but what can I do for myself? In the challenges we face together, let each of us ask —not just how can government help, but how can I help?

It is not enough just to be for peace. The point is, what can we do about it?

People should not have to pay for pollution they do not cause.

I often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics.

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.

I don't think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.