Richard M. Nixon Quotes

Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.

It's a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can't stop playing the game the way you've always played it.

What was Watergate? A little bugging!

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word "crisis." One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity.

In a flat choice between smoke and jobs, we're for jobs... But just keep me out of trouble on environmental issues.

Life isn't meant to be easy. It's hard to take being on the top - or on the bottom. I guess I'm something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things... Life is one crisis after another.

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out.

We seek friendly relations with all nations. Any nation can be our friend without being any other nation's enemy.

I think Congress has spent enough time on ethics. I think it's time they moved on to something else.

As you know, the separation of church and state is not subject to discussion or alteration. Under our Constitution no church or religion can be supported by the U.S. Government. We maintain freedom of religion so that an American can either worship in the church of his choice or choose to go to no church at all.

An important measure of our true commitment to environmental quality is our dedication to protecting the wilderness and its inhabitants. We must recognize their ecological significance and preserve them as sources of inspiration and education. And we need them as places of quiet refuge and reflection.

The Jewish cabal is out to get me.

The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV, only four years at a time, and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land except the court of impeachment.

I'm not a lovable man.

People react to fear, not love; they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.

Always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty.

[Peter] Drucker says that modern government can do only two things well: wage war and inflate the currency. Its the aim of my administration to prove Mr Drucker wrong.

I doubt if any of them would even intentionally double-park.

...we must strike a balance so that the protection of our irreplaceable heritage becomes as important as its use. The price of economic growth need not and will not be deterioration in the quality of our lives and our surroundings.

As our cities and suburbs relentlessly expand, those priceless open spaces needed for recreation areas accessible to their people are swallowed up-often forever. Unless we preserve these spaces while they are still available, we will have none to preserve.

This is a great day for France!

Failure isn't falling down. Failure is not getting up after you have fallen down.

The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water?

The people's right to change what does not work is one of the greatest principles in our system of government

There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white.

It's long been common practice among many to draw a distinction between "human rights" and "property rights," suggesting that the two are separate and unequal - with "property rights" second to "human rights."

Success is not a harbor but a voyage with its own perils to the spirit. The game of life is to come up a winner, to be a success, or to achieve what we set out to do.

With those who are willing to join, let us cooperate to reduce the burden of arms, to strengthen the structure of peace, to lift up the poor and the hungry.

What are our schools for if not indoctrination against Communism?

I've analyzed the best I can... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

They say, "Gee, you look great." That means they thought you looked like hell before.

You have my assurance that we will respond with full force should the settlement be violated by North Vietnam.

But also out here in this dreary, difficult war, I think history will record that this may have been one of Americas finest hours, because we took a difficult task and we succeeded.

So you are lean and mean and resourceful and you continue to walk on the edge of the precipice because over the years you have become fascinated by how close you can walk without losing your balance.

I wish I could give you a lot of advice, based on my experience of winning political debates. But I don't have that experience. My only experience is at losing them.

Our idea is to create a situation in which those lands to which we have obligations or in which we have interests, if they are ready to fight a fire, should be able to count on us to furnish the hose and water.

I'm not at liberty to discuss the governments knowledge of extraterrestrial UFO's at this time. I am still personally being briefed on the subject!

There can be no whitewash at the White House.

The ability to be cool, confident, and decisive in crisis is not an inherited characteristic but is the direct result of how well the individual has prepared himself for the battle.

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

The student who invades an administration building, roughs up a dean, rifles the files and issues 'non-negotiable demands' may have some of his demands met by a permissive university administration. But the greater his 'victory' the more he will have undermined the security of his own rights.

What we have done with the American Indian is its way as bad as what we imposed on the Negroes. We took a proud and independent race and virtually destroyed them. We have to find ways to bring them back into decent lives in this country.

I took a look around the office. ... I walked out and closed the door behind me. I knew that I would not be back there again." (On leaving the Executive Office Building)

You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

The Italians . . . you can't find one who is honest.

Why would anyone want to be President today? The answer is not one of glory, or fame; today the burdens of the office outweigh its privileges. Its not because the Presidency offers a chance to be somebody, but because it offers a chance to do something.

I'm glad I'm not Brezhnev. Being the Russian leader in the Kremlin. You never know if someone's tape recording what you say.

Tonight - to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans - I ask for your support.