Cleveland Grover Quotes & Sayings

I have a Congress on my hands. — Grover Cleveland

Interest yourself in public affairs as a duty of citizenship, but do not surrender your faith to those who discredit and debase politics by scoffing at sentiment and principle, and whose political activity consists in attempts to gain popular support by cunning devices and shrewd manipulation. — Grover Cleveland

The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of a servile class to compete with American labor, with no intention of acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and customs repugnant to our civilization. — Grover Cleveland

Our citizens have the right to protection from the incompetency of public employees who hold their places solely as the reward of partisan service. — Grover Cleveland

The appointing power of the Pope is treated as a public trust, and not as a personal perquisite. — Grover Cleveland

Men and times change-but principles-never. — Grover Cleveland

And let us not trust to human effort alone, but humbly acknowledging the power and goodness of Almighty God, who presides over the destiny of nations, and who has at all times been revealed in our country's history, let us invoke His aid and His blessings upon our labors. — Grover Cleveland

Political novice Ulysses S. Grant was the first of six Union veterans to become president, five of whom were born in Ohio. The 23rd Ohio Infantry Regiment alone produced Maj. Gen. Rutherford B. Hayes and Maj. William McKinley. Former Brig. Gen. Benjamin Harrison defeated Grover Cleveland in 1888 partly because — Thomas R. Flagel

The wage earner relies upon the ventures of confident and contented capital. This failing him, his condition is without alleviation, for he can neither prey on the misfortune of others nor hoard his labor. — Grover Cleveland

The ship of democracy, which has weathered all storms, may sink through the mutiny of those on board. — Grover Cleveland

It is a condition which confronts us-not a theory. — Grover Cleveland

If you are still in school, do not neglect your grades. Internships and other activities are fine, but when legal employers have to decide who to interview, grades play a big role in determining who makes that cut and who doesn't. — Grover Cleveland

I believe the most important benefit that I can confer on the country by my presidency is to insist upon the entire independence of the executive and legislative branches of the government, and compel the members of the legislative branch to see that they have responsibilities of their own, grave and well-defined, which their official oaths bind them sacredly to perform. — Grover Cleveland

Sensible and responsible women do not want to vote. The relative positions to be assumed by man and woman in the working out of our civilization were assigned long ago by a higher intelligence than ours. — Grover Cleveland

Minds do not act together in public; they simply stick together; and when their private activities are resumed, they fly apart again. — Grover Cleveland

The broad rich acres of our agricultural plains have been long preserved by nature to become her untrammeled gift to a people civilized and free, upon which should rest in well-distributed ownership the numerous homes of enlightened, equal and fraternal citizens ... Nor should our vast tracts of land be yielded up to the monopoly of corporations or grasping individuals, as appears to be much the tendency under the existing statute. — Grover Cleveland

In calm water every ship has a good captain. — Grover Cleveland

We will not forget that Liberty has made her home here, nor shall her chosen altar be neglected ... A stream of light shall pierce the darkness of ignorance and mans oppression until Liberty enlightens the world. — Grover Cleveland

Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust. — Grover Cleveland

I mistake the American people if they favor the odious doctrine that there is no such thing as international morality; that there is one law for a strong nation and another for a weak one. — Grover Cleveland

NATO was a wonderful idea. It was formed in 1949. We are as far away from NATO as NATO was when it was done in time from the presidency of Grover Cleveland. — Barney Frank

I know there is a Supreme Being who rules the affairs of men and whose goodness and mercy have always followed the American people, and I know He will not turn from us now if we humbly and reverently seek His powerful aid. — Grover Cleveland

Public officers are the servants and agents of the people, to execute the laws which the people have made. — Grover Cleveland

Every citizen owes to the country a vigilant watch and close scrutiny of its public servants and a fair and reasonable estimate of their fidelity. — Grover Cleveland

Once the coffers of the federal government are opened to the public, there will be no shutting them again. — Grover Cleveland

These are days of special perplexity and depression, and the path of public duty is unusually rugged. — Grover Cleveland

Communism is a hateful thing and a menace to peace and organized government; but the communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrowth of overweening cupidity and selfishness, which insidiously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil, which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wild disorder the citadel of rule. — Grover Cleveland

What in the world had Grover Cleveland done? Will you tell me? You give it up? I have been looking for six weeks for a Democrat who could tell me what Cleveland has done for the good of his country and for the benefit of the people, but I have not found him ... He says himself ... that two-thirds of his time has been uselessly spent with Democrats who want office ... Now he has been so occupied in that way that he has not done anything else. — William McKinley

It is the responsibility of the citizens to support their government. It is not the responsibility of the government to support its citizens. — Grover Cleveland

I have tried so hard to do the right. — Grover Cleveland

I have tried so hard to do right. — Grover Cleveland

What is the use of being elected or re-elected, unless you stand for something? — Grover Cleveland

When the blood of thousands of Americans is shed, the impact lingers. For a generation after the Civil War, the Republican injunction to 'vote as you shot' kept the party dominant for decades; from 1868 to 1912, only one Democrat - Grover Cleveland - won the White House. — Jeff Greenfield

Sometimes I wake at night in the White House and rub my eyes and wonder if it is not all a dream. — Grover Cleveland

My greatest trials come through those professing to be near and attached friends, who expect things. — Grover Cleveland

I would rather the man who presents something for my consideration subject me to a zephyr of truth and a gentle breeze of responsibility rather than blow me down with a curtain of hot wind. — Grover Cleveland

Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people. — Grover Cleveland

At times like the present, when the evils of unsound finance threaten us, the speculator may anticipate a harvest gathered from the misfortune of others, the capitalist may protect himself by hoarding or may even find profit in the fluctuations of values; but the wage earner - the first to be injured by a depreciated currency and the last to receive the benefit of its correction - is practically defenseless. — Grover Cleveland

It is no credit to me to do right. I am never under any temptation to do wrong! — Grover Cleveland

Patriotism is no substitute for a sound currency. — Grover Cleveland

The trusts and combinations - the communism of pelf - whose machinations have prevented us from reaching the success we deserved, should not be forgotten nor forgiven. — Grover Cleveland

Above all, tell the truth. — Grover Cleveland

In these sad and ominous days of mad fortune chasing, every patriotic, thoughtful citizen, whether he fishes or not, should lament that we have not among our countrymen more fishermen. — Grover Cleveland

What do you imagine the American people would think of me if I wasted my time going to the ball game? — Grover Cleveland

I have considered the pension list of the republic a roll of honor. — Grover Cleveland

We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected. — Grover Cleveland

A cause worth fighting for is worth fighting for to the end. — Grover Cleveland

I believe that the public temper is such that the voters of the land are prepared to support the party which gives the best promise of administering the government in the honest, simple, and plain manner which is consistent with its character and purposes. They have learned that mystery and concealment in the management of their affairs cover tricks and betrayal. The statesmanship they require consists in honesty and frugality, a prompt response to the needs of the people as they arise, and a vigilant protection of all their varied interests. — Grover Cleveland

Though President Grover Cleveland declared Labor Day a national holiday in 1894, the occasion was first observed on Sept. 5, 1882, in New York City. — Brendan I. Koerner

The United States is not a nation to which peace is a necessity. — Grover Cleveland

Being president means leaving one's name in the history book of which few men are authors. It is my fortune to be blessed with a proud name, one that parents will employ for generations to instill the values of honesty, independence, and above all, courage in their sons. — Grover Cleveland

I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution, and I do not believe that the power and duty of the General Government ought to be extended to the relief of individual suffering which is in no manner properly related to the public service or benefit. — Grover Cleveland

What, and give him (the batter) a chance to think on my time. — Grover Cleveland Alexander

During Grover Cleveland's second term, in the 1890s, the White House deceived the public by dismissing allegations that surgeons had removed a cancerous growth from the President's mouth; a vulcanized-rubber prosthesis disguised the absence of much of Cleveland's upper left jaw and part of his palate. — Robert Dallek

The lessons of paternalism ought to be unlearned and the better lesson taught that while the people should patriotically and cheerfully support their government, its functions do not include the support of the people. — Grover Cleveland

As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters. — Grover Cleveland

[Grover} Cleveland, this product of good conscience and self-help, with his stern ideas of purity, efficiency, and service, was a taxpayer's dream, the ideal bourgeois statesmen for his time: out of heartfelt conviction he gave to the interests what many a lesser politician might have sold them for a price. He was the flower of American political culture in the Gilded Age. — Richard Hofstadter

William McKinley has left us a priceless gift in the example of a useful and pure life, in his fidelity to public trusts and in his demonstration of the value of kindly virtues that not only ennoble but lead to success. — Grover Cleveland

It is said that the quality of recent immigration is undesirable. The time is quite within recent memory when the same thing was said of immigrants who, with their descendants, are now numbered among our best citizens. — Grover Cleveland

A man of true honor protects the unwritten word which binds his conscience more scrupulously, if possible, than he does the bond a breach of which subjects him to legal liabilities, and the
United States, in aiming to maintain itself as one of the most enlightened nations, would do its citizens gross injustice if it applied to its international relations any other than a high standard of honor and morality. — Grover Cleveland

He was a great president in his first term; in his second term, he wasn't the same Grover Cleveland he was to begin with ... Cleveland reestablished the presidency by being not only a chief executive but a leader. — Harry S. Truman

I am President of all the people, good, bad, or indifferent, and as long as my opinions are known, ought perhaps to keep myself out of their squabbles. — Grover Cleveland

It was not until the Abraham Lincoln administration that an income tax was imposed on Americans. Its stated purpose was to finance the war, but it took until 1872 for it to be repealed. During the Grover Cleveland administration, Congress enacted the Income Tax Act of 1894. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional in 1895. It took the Sixteenth Amendment (1913) to make permanent what the Framers feared
today's income tax. — Walter E. Williams

The best results in the operation of a government wherein every citizen has a share largely depend upon a proper limitation of the purely partisan zeal and effort and a correct appreciation of the time when the heat of the partisan should be merged in the patriotism of the citizen ... At this hour the animosities of political strife, the bitterness of partisan defeat, and the exultation of partisan triumph should be supplanted by an ungrudging acquiescence in the popular will and a sober, conscientious concern for the general weal ... Public extravagance begets extravagance among the people. — Grover Cleveland

He mocks the people who proposes that the government shall protect the rich and that they in turn will care for the laboring poor. — Grover Cleveland

Loyalty to the principles upon which our Government rests positively demands that the equality before the law which it guarantees to every citizen should be justly and in good faith conceded in all parts of the land. — Grover Cleveland

The admitted right of a government to prevent the influx of elements hostile to its internal peace and security may not be questioned, even where there is not treaty stipulation on the subject. — Grover Cleveland

Well, my dear fellow what did you expect, champagne? — Grover Cleveland

I cannot help but think it perilous to suffer these lands or the sources of their irrigation to fall into the hands of monopolies, which by such means may exercise lordship over the areas dependent on their treatment for productiveness. — Grover Cleveland

A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil. — Grover Cleveland

Unskilled in sophistry and new to the darker ways of national politics, Grover Cleveland faced his accusers, his slanderers, and his judges, the sovereign people, conscious of the general rectitude of his life, and courageously determined to bear the burdens of his sins in so far as guilt was his. — Grover Cleveland

I know that human prejudice - especially that growing out of race and religion - is cruelly inveterate and lasting. — Grover Cleveland

I know that I am honest and sincere in my desire to do well; but the question is whether I know enough to accomplish what I desire. — Grover Cleveland

Grover Cleveland declined to participate in character attacks on Blaine . When presented with papers which purported to be extremely damaging to Blaine, he grabbed them, tore them up, flung the shreds into the fire, and decreed, The other side can have a monopoly of all the dirt in this campaign. — Grover Cleveland

The laboring classes constitute the main part of our population. They should be protected in their efforts peaceably to assert their rights when endangered by aggregated capital and all statutes on this subject should recognize the care of the State for honest toil and be framed with a view of improving the condition of the workingman — Grover Cleveland

Good ball players make good citizens. — Grover Cleveland

Under our scheme of government the waste of public money is a crime against the citizen. — Grover Cleveland

A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves. — Grover Cleveland

The friendliness and charity of our countrymen can always be relied upon to relieve their fellow citizens in misfortune. — Grover Cleveland

If it takes the entire army and navy to deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card will be delivered. — Grover Cleveland

It is better to be defeated standing for a high principle than to run by committing subterfuge. — Grover Cleveland

After an existence of nearly 20 years of almost innocuous desuetude, these laws are brought forth. — Grover Cleveland

The paramount duty of maintaining public order and defending the interests of our own people may require the adoption of measures of restriction, but they should not tolerate the oppression of individuals of a special race. — Grover Cleveland

WHATEVER YOU DO, TELL THE TRUTH. — Grover Cleveland

No man has ever yet been hanged for breaking the spirit of a law. — Grover Cleveland

In the scheme of our national government, the presidency is preeminently the people's office. — Grover Cleveland

Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters. — Grover Cleveland

Party honesty is party expediency. — Grover Cleveland

Neither the discontent of party friends, nor the allurements constantly offered of confirmations of appointees conditions upon the avowal that suspensions have been made on party grounds alone, nor the threat proposed in the resolutions now before the Senate that no confirmations will be made unless the demands of that body are complied with, are sufficient to discourage or deter me from following in the way which I am convinced leads to better government for the people. — Grover Cleveland

President Grover Cleveland issued an executive order in 1895 regarding entrance to the Foreign Service. Potential candidates were required to pass two examinations, one written and the other oral, to measure an applicant's knowledge and understanding on a range of subjects deemed necessary for the position. The written examination included essay questions about international law, arithmetic, modern history, resources and commerce of the United States, political and commercial geography, political economy, and American history and institutions. — Judith L. Pearson

The communism of combined wealth and capital, the outgrown of overweening cupidity and selfishness which assiduously undermines the justice and integrity of free institutions, is not less dangerous than the communism of oppressed poverty and toil which, exasperated by injustice and discontent, attacks with wide disorder the citadel of misrule. — Grover Cleveland

What we have are good gray ballplayers, playing a good gray game and reading the good gray Wall Street Journal. They have been brainwashed, dry-cleaned and dehydrated! ... Wake up the echoes at the Hall of Fame and you will find that baseball's immortals were a rowdy and raucous group of men who would climb down off their plaques and go rampaging through Cooperstown, taking spoils ... Deplore it if you will, but Grover Cleveland Alexander drunk was a better pitcher than Grover Cleveland Alexander sober. — Bill Veeck

He who takes the oath today to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States only assumes the solemn obligation which every patriotic citizen ... should share with him ... Your every voter, as surely as your Chief Magistrate, under the same high sanction, though in a different sphere, exercises a public trust. — Grover Cleveland

It is right that the influence of the Government should be known in every humble home as the guardian of frugal comfort and content, and a defense against unjust exactions, and the unearned tribute persistently coveted by the selfish and designing. It is right that efficiency and honesty in public service should not be sacrificed to partisan greed; and it is right that the suffrage of our people should be pure and free. — Grover Cleveland

Unswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth, and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement and surely lead the way to usefulness and high achievement. — Grover Cleveland

All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purest patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship. — Grover Cleveland

I can find no warrant for such appropriation in the Constitution. — Grover Cleveland

I'm only waiting for my wife to grow up. — Grover Cleveland

No investment on earth is so safe, so sure, so certain to enrich its owners as undeveloped realty. I always advise my friends to place their savings in realty near a growing city. There is no such savings bank anywhere. — Grover Cleveland

Some day I will be better remembered. — Grover Cleveland