President Taft Quotes & Sayings

We should have an army so organized and so officered as to be capable in time of emergency, in cooperation with the National Militia, and under the provision of a proper national volunteer law, rapidly to expand into a force sufficient to resist all probable invasion from abroad and to furnish a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the maintenance of our traditional American policy which bears the name of President Monroe. — William Howard Taft

The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power in the Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined residuum of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest. — William Howard Taft

Well, I have one consolation. No candidate was ever elected ex-president by such a large majority! — William Howard Taft

This is one good thing about life that never changes, she thought. As long as he lived, as long as she returned, Mr. Fred would be here with his . . . simple welcome. What was that? Alice? Brer Rabbit? It was Mole. Mole, when he returned from some long journey, desperately tired, had found the familiar waiting for him with its simple welcome. — Harper Lee

The central issue in that pre-mortal council was: Shall the children of God have untrammeled agency to choose the course they should follow, whether good or evil, or shall they be coerced and forced to be obedient? Christ and all who followed Him stood for the former proposition - freedom of choice; Satan stood for the latter - coercion and force. The war that began in heaven over this issue is not yet over. The conflict continues on the battlefield of mortality. And one of Lucifer's primary strategies has been to restrict our agency through the power of earthly governments. (BYU devotional held Tuesday, 16 September 1986, President Ezra Taft Benson) — Ezra Taft Benson

I think the problems with being older come when your body cannot do what your mind wants. Then, Houston, we have a problem. — Antonio Banderas

What I do know is sometimes we love the wrong people and sometimes we marry them. — Terry McMillan

Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven't had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln. — Will Rogers

President David O. McKay declared: "No greater immediate responsibility rests upon members of the Church, upon all citizens of this Republic and of neighboring Republics than to protect the freedom vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States." (Conference Report, April 1950, p. 37.) — Ezra Taft Benson

I'll be damned if I am not getting tired of this. It seems to be the profession of a President simply to hear other people talk. — William Howard Taft

But unlike the "electric" excitement that had filled the room four years earlier, when Nellie had sparkled with happiness and Taft had "laughed with the joy of a boy," both the president and first lady clearly understood that the divisive convention had rendered Republican chances for election in November almost impossible. — Doris Kearns Goodwin

Life is a cycle, a great wheel that turns throughout time: we are born, we live, we die, and (if we are lucky) we are reborn — Robyn Bachar

Modern morality is all about perception. — Rachel Cusk

The truth is that in my present life I don't remember that I ever was president — William Howard Taft

I graduated from Academy of Fashion and Costume Design in Rome. At first, I thought I was going to be a costume designer for films, and then I ended up working in fashion - not as a designer, but mostly as a model. — Isabella Rossellini

I am afraid I am a constant disappointment to my party. The fact of the matter is, the longer I am president the less of a party man I seem to become. — William Howard Taft

The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make the corn to grow. He cannot make business good, although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way — William Howard Taft

There are two sorts of ignorance: we philosophize to escape ignorance; we start from the one, we repose in the other; they are the goals from which and to which we tend; and the pursuit of knowledge is but a course between two ignorances, as human life is only a traveling from grave to grave. — Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

I am president now, and tired of being kicked around. — William Howard Taft

Have you been listening to the music that many young folks are hearing today? Some of it is nerve-jamming in nature and much of it has been deliberately designed to promote revolution, dope, immorality, and a gap between parent and child. And some of this music has invaded our Church cultural halls.

Have you noticed some of our Church dances lately? Have they been praiseworthy, lovely, and of good report? (Article of Faith 13.) "I doubt," said President McKay, "whether it is possible to dance most of the prevalent fad dances in a manner to meet LDS standards. — Ezra Taft Benson

On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children's children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo. — William Howard Taft

Indeed, only one Supreme Court justice in history, one Horace Lurton, nominated by President [John] Taft, had more federal appeals court experience [than Samuel Alito]. — Jon Kyl

Reality, in its essence, consists not of particles interacting pointlessly in an
independent physical plane, but rather of values, psychological elements of
mind, made real. — Thomas Daniel Nehrer

I am going to do what I think is best for the country, within my jurisdiction and power, and then let the rest take care of itself. — William Howard Taft