Buren Quotes & Sayings

The church is not a museum for saints it's a hospital for sinners. — Abigail Van Buren

There is a power in public opinion in this country - and I thank God for it: for it is the most honest and best of all powers - which will not tolerate an incompetent or unworthy man to hold in his weak or wicked hands the lives and fortunes of his fellow-citizens. — Martin Van Buren

People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes. — Abigail Van Buren

158 Lewis Avenue between Lafayette and Van Buren, that was back durin days of hangin' on my bed-stuy block — Big Daddy Kane

Accept every blind date you can get, even with a girl who wears jeans. Maybe you can talk her out of them. — Abigail Van Buren

The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity. — Martin Van Buren

All the lessons of history and experience must be lost upon us if we are content to trust alone to the peculiar advantages we happen to possess. Look, being a lame flunky for a batshit crazy person isn't all that bad. Stay alive long enough and you may sneak your way to Washington! — Martin Van Buren

The case of the Seminoles constitutes at present the only exception to the successful efforts of the Government to remove the Indians to the homes assigned them west of the Mississippi. — Martin Van Buren

The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it. — Andrew Jackson

It affords me sincere pleasure to be able to apprise you of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the Mississippi. — Martin Van Buren

Love is what enables us to bridge the gap of disappointment when others don't live up to the expectations we have of them. — Abigail Van Buren

Eli Willard just looked at her for a long moment, and then he announced, 'Lady of the Lake strikes iceberg in mid-Atlantic; 215 drown. New York City fire destroys 700 buildings. Japanese earthquake kills 12,000. Worldwide cholera epidemic kills millions. Wages rise, but prices rise faster. Financial crash occurs on Van Buren's 36th day in office. Nation begins first great depression. Bank failures and closings spread like plague. 200,000 are unemployed. Business bankrupt; only pawnbrokers prosper. Van Buren declares ten-hour days on all federal jobs. There. Does that make you feel any better? — Donald Harington

Banks properly established and conducted are highly useful to the business of the country, and will doubtless continue to exist in the States so long as they conform to their laws and are found to be safe and beneficial. — Martin Van Buren

I agree that marijuana laws are overdue for an overhaul. I also favor the medical use of marijuana
if it's prescribed by a physician. I cannot understand why the federal government should interfere with the doctor-patient relationship, nor why it would ignore the will of a majority of voters who have legally approved such legislation. — Abigail Van Buren

I've always had a sneaking fondness for Martin Van Buren. He wrote his autobiography, you know, and never once mentioned his wife. Now that's what I call a mans man. — Cleveland Amory

For many of us we are always wanting more - we would be happier if we had such and such. Maybe we should pause for a moment and hear what some people in the third world countries would like to make them happier. 1. Having enough to eat so when you go to sleep at night your stomach doesn't ach. 2. Having shoes on your feet and any kind of clothing to keep the cold out. 3. Having a roof over your head. 4. Having the hope that you'll be lucky enough to get some kind of an education. 5. Believing that the dream of freedom, brotherhood, and peace for all mankind will someday come true. — Abigail Van Buren

With European powers no new subjects of difficulty have arisen, and those which were under discussion, although not terminated, do not present a more unfavorable aspect for the future preservation of that good understanding which it has ever been our desire to cultivate. — Martin Van Buren

I shall tread in the footsteps of my illustrious predecessor. — Martin Van Buren

While forbidden fruit is said to taste sweeter, it usually spoils faster. — Abigail Van Buren

So yesterday you fell off the wagon? Or maybe you blew your diet? Or lost your temper and shot off your mouth? Well, that was yesterday. Today is a brand-new day with a clean slate, so forget yesterday! — Abigail Van Buren

The length of history spanned by father and daughter is hard to comprehend. W. A. Clark was born in 1839, during the administration of the eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren. W.A. was twenty-two when the Civil War began. When Huguette was born in 1906, Theodore Roosevelt, the twenty-sixth president, was in the White House. Yet 170 years after W.A.'s birth, his youngest child was still alive at age 103 during the time of the forty-fourth president, Barack Obama. — Bill Dedman

I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men ... in receiving from the people the sacred trust confided to my illustrious predecessor. — Martin Van Buren

As to the presidency, the two happiest days of my life were those of my entrance upon the office and my surrender of it. — Martin Van Buren

McDaniel, stay, if you would. We have a game to finish and business to discuss." Van Buren strode to the chestnut bar and poured two glasses of Glen Garioch, 1958 whiskey. He downed a shot of his favorite beverage and refilled before facing McDaniel. The dark burgundy walls and the lingering spicy scent of recently-smoked Gurkha cigars soothed him. "You play a good game of poker. Do you play often?" Van Buren approached the table with the drinks. "Every Friday night. — M.V. Miles

I never knew a man more free from conceit, or one to whom it was a greater extent a pleasure, as well as a recognized duty, to listen patiently to what might be said to him upon any subject under consideration ... Neither, I need scarcely say, was he in the habit of talking, much less boasting, of his own achievements. — Martin Van Buren

On receiving from the people the sacred trust twice confided on my illustrious predecessor, and which he has discharged so faithfully and so well, I know that I can not expect to perform the arduous task with equal ability and success. — Martin Van Buren

Mutual forbearance and reciprocal concessions: thro' their agency the Union was established - the patriotic spirit from which they emanated will forever sustain it. — Martin Van Buren

Errors were doubtless committed on all sides, delusions set on foot which there was not time to dissipate and means, designed for good ends, perverted to bad purposes. — Martin Van Buren

So I fought the demon. I remember having it on the ground and kneeling on its neck, suffocating it. I realized I was killing it, and I just slightly let my knee up. The moment I did, it filled with life and I immediately sensed the venom and evil rise in it. I instantly dropped my knee, crushing its windpipe and killi...ng it. It gave me no choice. There was too much at stake. — Sophia Van Buren

Most men are not scolded out of their opinion. — Martin Van Buren

We should not feel so sorely grieved if no man who had not attained the full stature of a Webster, Clay, Van Buren, or Gerrit Smith could claim the right of the elective franchise. But to have drunkards, idiots, horse-racing, rum-selling rowdies, ignorant foreigners, and silly boys fully recognized, while we ourselves are thrust out from all the rights that belong to citizens, it is too grossly insulting to the dignity of woman to be longer quietly submitted to. — Elizabeth Cady Stanton

How should they answer? — Abigail Van Buren

The law increasing and organizing the military establishment of the United States has been nearly carried into effect, and the Army has been extensively and usefully employed during the past season. — Martin Van Buren

If you want your place in the sun you've got put up with a few blisters. — Paul Matthews Van Buren

In time of peace there can, at all events, be no justification for the creation of a permanent debt by the Federal Government. Its limited range of constitutional duties may certainly under such circumstances be performed without such a resort. — Martin Van Buren

I can't think of a more potent combination than God and a good lawyer. — Abigail Van Buren

On the eve of the Civil War, James Parton could write that 'the political history of the United States, for the last thirty years, dates from the moment when the soft hand of Mr. Van Buren touched Mrs. Eaton's knocker.' — James Parton

It is almost impossible to throw dirt on someone
without getting a little on yourself — Abigail Van Buren

Some People are more turned on by money than they are by love.
In one respect they're alike. They're both wonderful as long as they last. — Abigail Van Buren

If you are looking for a kindly, well-to-do older gentleman who is no longer interested in sex, take out an ad in The Wall Street Journal. — Abigail Van Buren

Martin Van Buren was a shitty guy. Not just because he was a bad president, and not just because he was pro-slavery. Van Buren was shitty in a very general sort of way. And with all that that implies. — Daniel O'Brien

It is totally unconscionable to subject defenseless animals to mutilation and death, just so a company can be the first to market a new shade of nail polish or a new, improved laundry detergent. It's cruel, it's brutal, it's inhumane, and most people don't want it. — Abigail Van Buren

Grant Foreman, the leading authority on Indian removal, estimates that during confinement in the stockade or on the march westward four thousand Cherokees died. In December 1838, President Van Buren spoke to Congress: It affords sincere pleasure to apprise the Congress of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session have had the happiest effects. — Howard Zinn

The United States have fulfilled in good faith all their treaty stipulations with the Indian tribes, and have in every other instance insisted upon a like performance of their obligations. — Martin Van Buren

Women who miscalculate are called mothers. — Abigail Van Buren

Wisdom doesn't automatically come with old age. Nothing does
- except wrinkles. It's true, some wines improve with age. But
only if the grapes were good in the first place. — Abigail Van Buren

In a government whose distinguishing characteristic should be a diffusion and equalization of its benefits and burdens the advantage of individuals will be augmented at the expense of the community at large. — Martin Van Buren

It seems proper, at all events, that by an early enactment similar to that of other countries the application of public money by an officer of Government to private uses should be made a felony and visited with severe and ignominious punishment. — Martin Van Buren

Our country presents on every side the evidences of that continued favor under whose auspices it, has gradually risen from a few feeble and dependent colonies to a prosperous and powerful confederacy. — Martin Van Buren

Fighting fire with fire only gets you ashes! — Abigail Van Buren

My conviction of the necessity of further legislative provisions for the safe-keeping and disbursement of the public moneys and my opinion in regard to the measures best adapted to the accomplishment of those objects have been already submitted to you. — Martin Van Buren

Is it possible to be anything in this country without being a politician? — Martin Van Buren

If we could sell our experiences for what they cost us, we'd all be millionaires. — Abigail Van Buren

To avoid the necessity of a permanent debt and its inevitable consequences, I have advocated and endeavored to carry into effect the policy of confining the appropriations for the public service to such objects only as are clearly with the constitutional authority of the Federal Government. — Martin Van Buren

I am more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased exercise of political opinion - the only sure foundation and safeguard of republican government - would be exposed by any further increase of the already overgrown influence of corporate authorities. — Martin Van Buren

You are what you are when nobody is looking. — Abigail Van Buren

What interested me the most was that when I [traveled to Europe] I knew what Joseph Beuys was doing, he knew what I was doing, and we both, we just started to talk. How did I know what Daniel Buren was doing, and to an extent, he knew exactly what I was doing? How did everybody know? It's an interesting thing. I'm still fascinated by it because, why is it now, with the Internet and everything else, you get whole groups of artists who have chosen to be regional? They really are only with the people they went to school with. — Lawrence Weiner

Those who have wrought great changes in the world never succeeded by gaining over chiefs; but always by exciting the multitude. The first is the resource of intrigue and produces only secondary results, the second is the resort of genius and transforms the universe. — Martin Van Buren

For thirty-six of the forty years between 1800 and 1840, either Jefferson or a self-described adherent of his served as president of the United States: James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, and Martin Van Buren.32 (John Quincy Adams, a one-term president, was the single exception.) — Jon Meacham

Many husbands today pitch in to help with household chores - it's called partnership. — Abigail Van Buren

There are 2 kinds of people in the world- those who walk into a room and say "There you are" and those who say, "Here I am! — Abigail Van Buren

The condition of the tribes which occupy the country set apart for them in the West is highly prosperous, and encourages the hope of their early civilization. They have for the most part abandoned the hunter state and turned their attention to agricultural pursuits. — Martin Van Buren

Every proper exertion has been made and will be continued to carry out the wishes of Congress in relation to the tobacco trade, as indicated in the several resolutions of the House of Representatives and the legislation of the two branches. — Martin Van Buren

Cruel words erode the self-esteem like the ocean eats away the shore. — Abigail Van Buren

I only look to the gracious protection of the Divine Being whose strengthening support I humbly solicit, and whom I fervently pray to look down upon us all. May it be among the dispensations of His Providence to bless our beloved country with honors and with length of days; may her ways beways of pleasantness, and all her paths be peace. — Martin Van Buren

O, heavenly Father: we thank thee for food and remember the hungry.
We thank thee for health and remember the sick.
We thank thee for friends and remember the friendless.
We thank thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.
May these remembrances stir us to service,
That thy gifts to us may be used for others.
Amen. — Abigail Van Buren

If laws acting upon private interests can not always be avoided, they should be confined within the narrowest limits, and left wherever possible to the legislatures of the States. — Martin Van Buren

Maturity is the ability to do a job whether you're supervised or not; finish a job once it's started; carry money without spending it; and the ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even. — Abigail Van Buren

The people under our system, like the king in a monarchy, never dies. — Martin Van Buren

In Biblical times, a man could have as many wives as he could afford. Just like today. — Abigail Van Buren

The best index to a person's character is how he treats people who can't do him any good, and how he treats people who can't fight back. — Abigail Van Buren

If you want your children to turn out well, spend twice as much time with them, and half as much money. — Abigail Van Buren

No evil can result from its inhibition more pernicious than its toleration. — Martin Van Buren

For myself, therefore, I desire to declare that the principle that will govern me in the high duty to which my country calls me is a strict adherence to the letter and spirit of the Constitution as it was designed by those who framed it. — Martin Van Buren

The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. — Abigail Van Buren

Mr. Van Buren, your friends may be leaving you but my friends never leave me. — Andrew Jackson

There is no end to the undeserved misery and mischief it could create. — Abigail Van Buren

The connection which formerly existed between the Government and banks was in reality injurious to both, as well as to the general interests of the community at large. — Martin Van Buren

In response to a letter regarding the writer's lack of religious belief:
The lack of faith is not doubt. It is certainty. — Abigail Van Buren

When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterised her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother's farewell kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken. — Theodore Dreiser

As one Iraqi said, "It is like I am standing naked in a room with a big hat on my head. Everyone comes in and helps put flowers and ribbons on my hat, but no one seems to notice that I am naked. — Peter Van Buren

Railroad carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of fifteen miles per hour by engines which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to the crops, scaring the livestock, and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such break-neck speed. — Martin Van Buren

Psychotherapy, unlike castor oil, which will work no matter how you get it down, is useless when forced on an uncooperative patient. — Abigail Van Buren

It is true that I was born in Iowa, but I can't speak for my twin sister. — Abigail Van Buren

The less you talk, the more you're listened to. — Abigail Van Buren

If you don't value what you have, you're sure to lose it. — Abigail Van Buren

You could move.'
"Dear Abby" responds to a reader who complained that a gay couple was moving in across the street and wanted to know what he could do to improve the quality of the neighborhood. — Abigail Van Buren

The government should not be guided by Temporary Excitement, but by Sober Second Thought. — Martin Van Buren

If you want children to keep their feet on the ground, put some responsibility on their shoulders. — Abigail Van Buren

Kissing power is stronger than will power. — Abigail Van Buren

There is but one reliance. — Martin Van Buren

The atonement of Jesus Christ is the only remedy and rest for my soul. — Martin Van Buren

Then, there's the modern mother-in-law. In her mid 40s, she is the compact car of her breed: efficient, trim, attractive and in harmony with her times. She's pretty stiff competition for the plain young matron who's overweight and under-financed. If there is going to be friction in this relationship, it could start from envy and resentment in the younger woman. But Father Time is on her side, even if Mother Nature played her a dirty trick — Abigail Van Buren

The second, sober thought of the people is seldom wrong, and always efficient. — Martin Van Buren

Between Russia and the United States sentiments of good will continue to be mutually cherished. — Martin Van Buren

We remain at peace with all nations, and no efforts on my part consistent with the preservation of our rights and the honor of the country shall be spared to maintain a position so consonant to our institutions. — Martin Van Buren

With respect to the northeastern boundary of the United States, no official correspondence between this Government and that of Great Britain has passed since that communicated to Congress toward the close of their last session. — Martin Van Buren

The national will is the supreme law of the Republic, and on all subjects within the limits of his constitutional powers should be faithfully obeyed by the public servant. — Martin Van Buren

A bad habit never disappears miraculously, it's an undo-it-yourself project. — Abigail Van Buren