Richard M. Nixon Quotes & Sayings

It is in that spirit, the spirit of '76, that I ask you to rise and join me in a toast to Chairman Mao, to Premier Chou, to the people of our two countries, and to the hope of our children that peace and harmony can be the legacy of our generation to theirs. — Richard M. Nixon

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. — Richard M. Nixon

My telephone calls and meetings and decisions were now parts of a prescribed ritual aimed at making peace with the past; his calls, his meetings and his decisions were already the ones that would shape America's future. (On transfer of power to Gerald R Ford) — Richard M. Nixon

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them back. — Richard M. Nixon

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. — Richard M. Nixon

I made my mistakes, but in all of my years in public life, I have never profited, never profited from public serviceI have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I have earned everything I have got. — Richard M. Nixon

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits. — Richard M. Nixon

In our own lives, let each of us asknot just what government will do for me, but what can I do for myself? — Richard M. Nixon

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

Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism, idealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that. — Richard M. Nixon

Nothing matters more to the future of this Nation than insuring that our young men and women learn to believe in themselves and believe in their dreams, and that they develop this capacitythat you develop this capacity, so that you keep it all of your lives. I believe one of Americas most priceless assets is the idealism which motivates the young people of America. My generation has invested all that it has, not only its love but its hope and faith, in yours. — Richard M. Nixon

Solutions are not the answer. — Richard M. Nixon

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them. — Richard M. Nixon

When the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt thrust him suddenly into the Presidency in April of 1945 at one of the most critical moments of our history, he met that moment with courage and vision. His farsighted leadership in the postwar era has helped ever since to preserve peace and freedom in the world. — Richard M. Nixon

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. — Richard M. Nixon

A man isn't finnished when he is beaten he is finnished when he quits — Richard M. Nixon

I'd like to see people, instead of spending so much time on the ethical problem, get after the problems that really affect the people of this country — Richard M. Nixon

I believe in building bridges, but we should only build our end of the bridge. — Richard M. Nixon

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. — Richard M. Nixon

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too. — Richard M. Nixon

The Jewish cabal is out to get me. — Richard M. Nixon

Writing is the toughest thing I've ever done. — Richard M. Nixon

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

The 1970s must be the years when America pays its debt to the past by reclaiming the purity of its air, its waters, and our living environment. It is literally now or never. — Richard M. Nixon

You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I'm innocent. You've got to believe I'm innocent. If you don't, take my job. — Richard M. Nixon

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! — Richard M. Nixon

Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out. — Richard M. Nixon

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

I'm not a lovable man. — Richard M. Nixon

Military security has to rest, ultimately, on economic and polit
ical stability. One of the effects of the rapidity of change in the
world today is that there can no longer be static stability; there
can only be dynamic stability. A nation or society that fails to
keep pace with change is in danger of flying apart. It is important
that we recognize this, but equally important that in trying to
maintain a dynamic stability we remember — Richard M. Nixon

The easiest period in a crisis situation is actually the battle itself. The most difficult is the period of indecision - whether to fight or run away. And the most dangerous period is the aftermath. It is then, with all his resources spent and his guard down, that an individual must watch out for dulled reactions and faulty judgment. — Richard M. Nixon

History will treat me fairly. Historians probably won't, because most historians are on the left. — Richard M. Nixon

Don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects. — Richard M. Nixon

Jesus this song you wrote The words are sticking in my throat Peace on Earth Hear it every Christmas time But hope and history won't rhyme So what's it worth? This peace on Earth — Richard M. Nixon

There are some instances where you may be ahead of us, for example, in the development of the thrust of your rockets for the investigation of outer space; there may be some instances in which we are ahead of you
in color television, for instance. — Richard M. Nixon

You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to. — Richard M. Nixon

Mrs. Nixon and I share the sorrow of millions of Americans at the death of Louis Armstrong. One of the architects of an American art form, a free and individual spirit, and an artist of worldwide fame, his great talents and magnificent spirit added richness and pleasure to all our lives. — Richard M. Nixon

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

What was Watergate? A little bugging! — Richard M. Nixon

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. — Richard M. Nixon

If in order to avoid further Communist expansion in Asia and particularly in Indo-China, if in order to avoid it we must take the risk by putting American boys in, I believe that the executive branch of the government has to take the politically unpopular position of facing up to it and doing it, and I personally would support such a decision. — Richard M. Nixon

The peace we seek to win is not victory over any other people, but the peace that comes "with healing in its wings;" with compassion for those who have suffered; with understanding for those who have opposed us; with the opportunity for all the peoples of this Earth to choose their own destiny. — Richard M. Nixon

The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. — Richard M. Nixon

You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates. — Richard M. Nixon

Peace is the real and right memorial for those who have died in war. — Richard M. Nixon

Most days I feel like the sole survivor of a shipwreck, rowing my paddleboat across a sea of people on waves made of an infinite array of hands and crests that reveal anonymous faces. On a good day, the clouds part to alight on-lo and behold-an island! I step ashore, only find that it too is made of people, mangled bodies somehow still alive. They grab at my feet, pulling me under like quicksand. The last thing I see before suffocating is the sky, a billion eyes staring down, blinking in undulating electric ripples. The cold rain I feel on my cheeks is the tears of the people. — Richard M. Nixon

Baseball without fans is like Jayne Mansfield without a sweater. Hang on, that can be taken two ways. — Richard M. Nixon

I don't know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports. — Richard M. Nixon

Because there are no local or State boundaries to the problems of our environment, the Federal Government must play an active, positive role. We can and will set standards. We can and will exercise leadership. — Richard M. Nixon

While technically I did not commit a crime, an impeachable offense ... these are legalisms, as far as the handling of this matter is concerned; it was so botched up, I made so many bad judgments. The worst ones, mistakes of the heart, rather than the head. But let me say, a man in that top job - he's got to have a heart, but his head must always rule his heart. — Richard M. Nixon

Peace is a great goal, but it is not a panacea. Neither is material wealth. — Richard M. Nixon

There is no such thing as a nonpolitical speech by a politician. — Richard M. Nixon

Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself. — Richard M. Nixon

I'm not going to be the first American president to lose a war. — Richard M. Nixon

I let the American people down. — Richard M. Nixon

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. — Richard M. Nixon

President Johnson and I have a lot in common. We were both born in small towns and we're both fortunate in the fact that we think we married above ourselves. — Richard M. Nixon

The great silent majority. — Richard M. Nixon

Watergate had become the center of the media's universe, and during the remaining year of my presidency the media tried to force everything else to revolve around it. — Richard M. Nixon

There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I'm not like that I never shoot blanks. — Richard M. Nixon

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

Because of the realities of human nature, perfect peace is achieved in two places only: in the grave and at the typewriter. — Richard M. Nixon

If some of my judgments were wrong
and some were wrong
they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the nation, — Richard M. Nixon

Publicly, we say one thing ... Actually, we do another. — Richard M. Nixon

As long as I'm sitting in the chair, there's not going to be any Jew appointed to that court. [No Jew] can be right on the criminal-law issue. — Richard M. Nixon

The true idealist pursues what his heart says is right in a way that his head says will work. — Richard M. Nixon

Well, I'm not a crook. — Richard M. Nixon

Success is not a harbor but a voyage with its own perils to the spirit ... The lesson that most of us on this voyage never learn, but can never quite forget, is that to win is sometimes to lose. — Richard M. Nixon

A man who has never lost himself in a cause bigger than himself has missed one of life's mountaintop experiences. Only in losing himself does he find himself. Only then does he discover all the latent strengths he never knew he had and which otherwise would have remained dormant. — Richard M. Nixon

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do. — Richard M. Nixon

The answer to many of the domestic problems we face is not higher taxes and more spending. It is less waste, more results and greater freedom for the individual American to earn a rightful place in his own community - and for States and localities to address their own needs in their own ways, in the light of their own priorities. — Richard M. Nixon

You find out who your true friends are not when you are on top of the world, but when the world is on top of you. — Richard M. Nixon

Nothing would please the Kremlin more than to have the people of this country choose a second rate president. — Richard M. Nixon

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

What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance. — Richard M. Nixon

Those few days after Kent State were among the darkest of my presidency. — Richard M. Nixon

I was born in the house my father built. — Richard M. Nixon

They say it's the responsibility of the media to look at government - especially the President - with a microscope. I don't argue with that, but when they use a proctoscope, it's going too far. — Richard M. Nixon

Where the hell is Chad? — Richard M. Nixon

We should set goals within the limits of our resources while working to the limits of our powers. — Richard M. Nixon

Americans
must recognize that a highly sophisticated, highly advanced po
litical system, which required many centuries to develop in the
West, may not be best for other nations which have far different
traditions and are still in an earlier stage of development. What
matters is that these governments are consciously, deliberately and programmatically developing in the direction of greater
liberty, greater abundance, broader choice and increased popular involvement in the process of government. — Richard M. Nixon

I also believe that academic freedom should protect the right of a professor or student to advocate Marxism, socialism, communism, or any other minority viewpoint - no matter how distasteful to the majority, provided ... — Richard M. Nixon

Listen, I don't know anything about polygraphs and I don't know how accurate they are, but I know they'll scare the hell out of people. — Richard M. Nixon

I brought myself down. I impeached myself by resigning. — Richard M. Nixon

There will be no whitewash in the White House. — Richard M. Nixon

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

Reading not only enlarges and challenges the mind; it also engages and exercises the brain. Today's youth who sits mesmerized by a television screen is not going to be tomorrow's leader. Television watching is passive. Reading is active. — Richard M. Nixon

If the President does it, it can't be illegal. — Richard M. Nixon

We don't owe the blacks a damn thing, anyway. — Richard M. Nixon

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. — Richard M. Nixon

I would have made a good pope. — Richard M. Nixon

Screw State! State's always on the side of the blacks. The hell with them! — Richard M. Nixon

I never leave a game before the last pitch, because in baseball, as in life and especially politics, you never know what will happen. — Richard M. Nixon

Nations not possessing great power can indulge in the luxury of
criticism of others; those possessing it have the responsibility of
decision. Faced with a clear challenge, the decision not to use
one's power must be as deliberate as the decision to use it. The con — Richard M. Nixon

The antiwar movement is a wild orgasm of anarchists sweeping across the country like a prairie fire. — Richard M. Nixon

To the ordinary guy, all this is a bunch of gobbledygook. But out of the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing: you can't trust the government, you can't believe what they say, and you can't rely on their judgment. — Richard M. Nixon

The developing coherence of Asian regional thinking is reflected in a disposition to consider problems and loyalties in regional terms, and to evolve regional approaches to development needs and to the evolution of a New World Order. — Richard M. Nixon

Anybody who wants to be an ambassador, wants to pay at least $250,000. — Richard M. Nixon

It has been said that Canada is bounded 'on the north by gold, on the west by the East, on the east by history - and on the south by friends'.* We hope that will always be the case and we hope it will be the case not only with respect to the United States, your immediate neighbor to the south, but with respect to all your southern neighbors - and ours - who are bound by the great forces of geography and history which are distinctive to the New World. — Richard M. Nixon

A politician knows that his friends are not always his allies, and that his adversaries are not always his enemies. — Richard M. Nixon