President Polk Quotes & Sayings

In the nineteenth century, cholera struck the most modern, prosperous cities in the world, killing rich and poor alike, from Paris and London to New York City and New Orleans. In 1836, it felled King Charles X in Italy; in 1849, President James Polk in New Orleans; in 1893, the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in St. Petersburg. — Sonia Shah

Accustomed to lure him into speaking of himself. But she put them far less spontaneously, far less adroitly, than usual. Her one all-absorbing anxiety in entering that room was not an anxiety to be trifled with. — Wilkie Collins

There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress than I had any conception of, before I became President of the U.S. — James K. Polk

I cannot, whilst President of the United States, descend to enter into a newspaper controversy. — James K. Polk

The kingdom of sleep demands its forfeits, and the world looks very different through eyes cracked and yellow with its denial. — Alaya Dawn Johnson

Since light is best expressed through differences in color quality, color should not be handled as a tonal gradation, to produce the effect of light. — Hans Hofmann

In the university, professors make up artificial problems. In the real world, the problems do not come in nice, neat packages. They have to be discovered. — Donald A. Norman

In the incongruous role of the insurgent party-builder, he made crystal clear the whole host of inferences we have drawn from the experiences of Monroe and Polk: that innovation, however orthodox, is inherently destabilizing; that the purely constructive leadership project is an illusion; that the affiliated leader cannot assume independent ground without ultimately embracing the role of the heretic; that the only way ever to be president in your own right is to become yourself a great repudiator and set yourself directly against the bulwark of received power; that political disruption parallels presidential significance. Roosevelt's insight was not simply that new achievements do not rest securely on old foundations, but that to save the handiwork of his presidency he would have to reconstruct its political base. — Stephen Skowronek

Observation always involves theory. — Edwin Powell Hubble

The technology is getting better. There will be a day when you'll be able to hear any music you want, anywhere you are, on demand, in a quality that is as good as when it was made. Things are moving in that direction. — Rick Rubin

I am very mistrustful of people who are constantly over intellectualising things. It kills passion. You have to allow yourself to lose control from time to time. — Eric Cantona

After ten years of conflicting feelings, I'm suddenly not conflicted at all. — Bella Andre

The only President who clearly died of overwork was Polk, and that was a long time ago. Hoover, who worked intensely and humorlessly as President, lived for more than thirty years after the White House; Truman, who worked intensely and gaily, lived for twenty — Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.

Too many voters are already bought
not by corporate campaign donors, but by the government itself. — Joseph Sobran

No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. — James K. Polk

We are all orbits of some sort,
circling around the world we call our own,
and literature...
Literature is a compass; — Thabo Jijana

There's something very addictive about people pleasing. It's a thought pattern and a habit that feels really, really good until it becomes desperate. — Anne Hathaway

Although ... the Chief Magistrate must almost of necessity be chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles and measures, yet in his official action he should not be the President of a party only, but of the whole people of the United States. — James K. Polk