Ask Mike: Presidential quotes
Hey Guys,
A president’s speeches are often a huge part of his or her legacy. After noticing so many questions within Yahoo! Answers on who said what famous quote, I thought I’d do a brief rundown on some of the more famous presidential phrases. The commander-in-chief didn’t always write the words (that’s what speechwriters are for), but he said ‘em. And in history’s eyes, that’s what counts.
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” This is one of the all time famous quotes and odds are you probably already know that President Franklin Roosevelt said this in response to the country’s worry about the economy at the beginning of the Great Depression. You can read the entire speech here.
“The buck stops here.” Quotes about “passing the buck” are as old as the hills, but it was President Harry S. Truman who popularized the quote “The Buck Stops Here.” A reference to his refusal to shuck responsibility, the phrase had a place of honor on the president’s desk in the Oval Office. Now, it’s used in everyday conversation, and seen at just about every game involving the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Milwaukee Bucks.
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” OK, this one is too easy. As we all know, John F. Kennedy said this during his 1961 inaugural address. In the years since, the line has become one of the most famous phrases in history. The National Archives explains that President Kennedy honed down the famous phrase “from a thought about sacrifice” that he’d “long held in his mind and had expressed in various ways in campaign speeches.”
“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.” This is one of my favorite quotes, because I think it really holds true. It comes from President Calvin Coolidge, who goes on to note that not even talent can take the place of persistence. “Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.”
“Speak softly, but carry a big stick.” President Theodore Roosevelt popularized this gem. It basically means that in matters of diplomacy you should be both respectful and prepared to rumble should things turn ugly.
Got any other favorite presidential quotes? Go ahead and leave a comment below and explain why it means something to you. Bonus points to the first person who quotes William Henry Harrison.
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Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.- Abe Lincoln
Here’ my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose! – Ronald Reagan I like this because, sometimes, a President should be firm and determined – especially when it comes to what should be his #1 priority. Defending our borders.
If anyone thinks JFK “honed down the famous phrase” from any thoughts he might have had about sacrifice, they’re a damn fool.
He just paraphrased an 1884 Memorial Day quote from Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: “not to ask ourselves what our country can do for each of us, but to ask ourselves what we can do for our country.” Kennedy also used this quote in a research paper about the Supreme Court that he had written at Harvard in a political science class.
I think Kennedy was a good President (except for having the morals of an alley cat, which was covered up by the press in those days), and he was a good speaker. But he did NOT originate this idea or phrase…which had been around in various other versions even before Justice Holmes used it.
A small correction: It’s Harry S Truman. Truman used to point out that his middle initial S wasn’t really an initial because it didn’t stand for anything; i.e., he didn’t have a middle name, only a “S”
u r so cool for doing yahoo
Considering he gave a speech that lasted for hours, causing him to catch pneumonia and die, surely there must have been something memorable in there!
Mr. Gorbachev “TEAR DOWN THIS WALL”
- Ronald Reagan
This has always been my favorite presidential quote.
“The prudent capitalist will never adventure his capital . . . if there exists a state of uncertainty as to whether the Government will repeal tomorrow what it has enacted today.”
“A decent and manly examination of the acts of the Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged.”
“But I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free.”
All by William Henry Harrison. Just a quick search on presidential quotes brings up a hit on infoplease (http://www.infoplease.com/spot/presquotes1.html) with quotes through Gorge W. Bush.
I am not a crook! LOL
Lincoln’s second inaugural address….’with malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan..to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves and other nations.’
O.K., Mike:
“The spirit of liberty is the sovereign balm for every injury which our institutions may receive.”
– William Henry Harrison
Inaugural Address, 4 March 1841
The famous quote attributed to Kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you.” dates back to at least Rome of 63 BC.
Junenval, a roman satirist who died 4 years after Cicero used it in a speech to become co-counsel of Rome.
Cicero appears to have acquired the quote from a roman poet of the day, Junvenal (Decimus Junius Junenval). It is true that the quote is attributed to Cicero (Marcus Tullius Cicero), but he and Juvenal were both active in the same time frame and many roman texts point to Junvenal as the origin. The citation is to Junvenal’s Satires VIII.
Cicero became consul (well actually, co-consul) in 63 BCE. It may be that the lines were uttered in the series of speeches called the Catiline Orations during 63 BCE. However, the quote is actually attributed to a speech in 64 BCE. In that year Cicero would have effectivey been “running for consul,” So, it may be that we do not know; but he appears to have obtained if from Junvenal.
One thing that points to Junvenal is that his life was ending or had ended, just as Cicero’s public life came into full swing. Juvenal dies about 60 BCE. Cicero was making this quote about 4 years before thus the entire (knowledge or works) of Junenval would have been known to the educated orators of the day.
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
Clinton…
“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
-Secretary of State’s husband-
But a better quote, that is less famous:
Nominated for quote of the year is the statement made by Representative Dick Armey, who when asked if he had been in President Clinton’s place, would he have resigned?
He responded: “If I were in the President’s place I would not have gotten a chance to resign. I would be laying in a pool of my own blood, hearing Mrs. Armey standing over me saying, “How do I reload this damn thing?”
“I am not fit for this office and never should have been here.”
-Warren G. Harding. (Unlike Mr. Truman, the G actually stands for something.)
I like it as it reflects the only occasion of total honesty out of a politician that I’m aware of.
This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.
Abraham Lincoln
And Mike? You should always remember to proofread your headlines. “Presidental” is not a word unless you add an ‘i’
I’ve got a couple from Andrew Jackson that I love. He’s my favorite president:
I have always been afraid of banks.
Andrew Jackson
Americans are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission.
Andrew Jackson
Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.
Andrew Jackson
The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.
Andrew Jackson
Bill Clinton – “I did NOT have sexual relations with that woman.” Referring to Monica Lewinsky, which was later determined to be a flat-out lie.
‘I’m keeping the dog.’
-Nixon (hehe)
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.
Ronald Reagan
All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan, not only the finest President, he also was the best orator.
“It’s the economy, stupid”
–Bill Clinton
Who can ever forget
“I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman”
~Bill Clinton~
my fav quote but unforunatenly not by president
If you don’t stand up for anything you will fall for anything.
–Malcom X
Truman said”I am no all that smart, but I know the difference between chickensalad and chickensh**. And everytime I hear Richard Nixon speak, I don’t smell no mayonaise. Nixon is a lying shifty eyed SOB and God help us if we ever elect him to anything.”
“I did not have sexual relations with that women” my all time favorite by a NEW WOLD ORDER, BILDERBERG, scumbag
“Just get out of the way.” A famous line spoken by now-sitting president Obama in an address to the American citizens who opposed his health care plan.
“Let’s spread the wealth.” An impromptu quote captured on camera where radical socialist candidate Barack Obama answered a question when confronted during campaigning. The candidate went on to win the 2008 election when the DNC nominated him as their president candidate.
i am glad that someone has the guts to ask questions that are on everyones mind though they probably wouldn’t admit it
Well, he’s not a president, but…..
“SHUT THE **** UP!!!!!”
-John Mccain
“Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country” may be the most famous line of JFK’s inaugural address, but what he said right after that – the final sentence of the address also has some meaning – “My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America can do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man”. Most people don’t know that line from his 1961 speech, but I think it is the most significant line because of things like the race relations of the era in which he was President. “…freedom of MAN” being all of mankind, including blacks and others.
“the bank… I will kill it…” – Andrew jackson
I just love this quote and I live old hickory! It’s so blatent and to the point much like he was.
… we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain- abraham lincoln, the gettysburg address
aaaand #2 still the gettysburg address
we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.
Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces, but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”
—the second inaugural address of abe lincoln
“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”
Thomas Jefferson
“I didn’t inhale” … ROFL. Clinton (1993–2001)
not an exact quote prolly – but I still find it funny.
Yes we can!!!
Barack Obama
“A government big enough to give you anything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.” – Thomas Jefferson
“I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.” – Barack Obama
“If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.” – Barack Obama
“A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.” – FDR
“The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.” – Bill Clinton
“America just works better when more people have a chance to live their dreams.” – Bill Clinton
“I smoked it, but I didn’t inhale” LOL
“I did not have relations with that woman!” LOL
“Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country. ”
- Bill Clinton
“Fool me once, shame on you.. Fool me twice.. Well, you just cant fool me again!” LOL
“Free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don’t attack each other. Free nations don’t develop weapons of mass destruction.” LOL
“Faith crosses every border and touches every heart in every nation.”
-GW Bush
“Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.”
“Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.”
“Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.”
“Delay is preferable to error.”
“He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.”
“Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue, and prepares fit tools for the designs of ambition.”
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ”
-Thomas Jefferson
“our stories are singular but our destination is shared”
OBAMA
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
“Our destiny isn’t written for us, but by us”
“You are either with us, or against us”. This is the strongest and greatest presidential quote by George W. Bush.
“Neither in French nor in English nor in Mexican.” -George W. Bush, declining to take reporters’ questions during a photo op with Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, April 21, 2001
Hey Mike, I heard you were a professional question answerer.
Here’s my question:
My parents both have avirus on their computers(actually, my mom owns a laptop) and they don’t know from where.
And ever since my dad did something with his computer, it has been logging me out of every website I registered on whenever I close the window.
It gets frustrating wasting time, do you know how to fix or stabalize it?
Please help.
~~~The Better Gamer
“I did not have sex with that woman,Monica Lewinski” Bill Clinton
“Read my lips! No more taxes!” George Bush senior
Most of pp notes are pre-phrased keeping in mind with earlier thoughts and present pol. scenario, present society, war and peace etc. but out of the most presidential charecters JFK is my favorite and rightful and justified president before being assassinated. 1884 Memorial Day quote from S C Justice Holmes “don’t ask ourselves what our country can do for each of us, but to ask yourselves what we can do for our country.” Kennedy also used this quote in a research paper S C that he’d written at Harvard in a pol.science class lecture.
JFK a good President and a good speaker.
Truman also used to stress that his middle initial S wasn’t really an initial because it didn’t stand for anything i.e., he didn’t have a middle name, only a “S”
whereas in Indian Pres. speeches are just vague and not instantaneous; neither truthful nor implemented and always being side-tracked affairs narrated..Gorbachev’s famous russian quote of “Wall” is another land mark. Although he ruled united USSR undauntedly, his words and actions are praiseworthy to one and all nations… b a s u.
“Our long national nightmare is now over” Gerald Ford
“I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.”
Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States, First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1869
“You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”
Abraham Lincoln.
“You can fool some of the people all the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on.”
George W. Bush
The courage of life is a magnificient mixture of triumph and tragedy.
A man does what he must inspite of personal consequences, inspite of obstacles, dangers and pressures & that is the basis of all morality.
JFK
i think this is just awesome ^^
The most important of them all is Ronald Reagon’s quotes the nine most terrrifying words in the english language are “I’m from the government and am here to help” and another is “government is not the solution its the problem”
how old am i truly am
A Constitution of government, once changed from freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. (John Adams)
How right he was!
Hello i need to know your name
For the record George HW Bush said No NEW taxes, not no more taxes. Sure he ended up being wrong, but hey Obama promised no new taxes on the poor, and he’s going to break that promise. Oh and I like Obama is against Rash war, someone trying to support him I guess, and yet he is KEEPING THE TROOPS there. Genius huh?
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
President John F. Kennedy presidential inaugural address.
Those evil doer`s. George Bush jr.
“They misunderestimated me.”
~George W. Bush
“They misunderestimated me…”
the one and only George W.Bush
“Ich ben ein Berliner! (I am a jelly donut!)”
- John F. Kennedy, June 26, 1963, Berlin Wall
“I think instead of opposing systematically any administration, running down their characters and opposing all their measures, right or wrong, we ought to support every administration as far as we can in justice. ”
~John Adams~
I second that notion.
“You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was.” – Abraham Lincoln
Abe is just so wise!
“We understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the fainthearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor — who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.” Obama
What about the opponent’s youth and inexperience quote?
Richard Nixon
” I am not a crook. “
Just mark thy words and stand by your two feet in equal footings. It is well said and done. Wish you the good luck and GOD, almighty will be at your side as long as you will never learn to forget the least of your brethren. Tony
“Ich bin ein Berliner!” (“I am a doughnut!”) – JFK
Franklin Roosevelt’s quote, “Nothing to fear but fear itself” actually goes back very far to Sir Francis Bacon, the 16th century founder of the scientific method.
Hii, i love the way you get people involved in your blog.
How do you get into writting one for yahoo answers?
x
This country would run alot better under a dictatorship, As long as i was the dictator
George Bush
“I’ve now been in 57 states — I think one left to go.”
“Come on! I just answered, like, eight questions.” –exasperated by reporters after a news conference
Barak Obama
the chinese use 2 brush strokes to write crisis. one stands for danger the other for opportunity. In a crisis be aware of the danger but recognise the opportunity
jfk
the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.
Ronald Reagan
“I’m a Ford, not a Lincoln”__President Gerald Ford
“Now watch this drive…”
George W. Bush, 2004
From President Cheny: “Is it loaded?”
It depends on what your definition of “is” is.
Statement given by President Clinton under oath at his impeachment hearings defending himself as to whether he lied about sexual relations with his intern.
hello guys am happy to know you
i hear there are rumors, on the, uh, internets…
(-George Bush)
The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
A. Lincoln, First Inaugural Address
“It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.”
Bill Clinton during impeachment hearings.
“It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is,’ is.”
- Bill Clinton (to the Grand Jury during the Monica Lewinsky scandal)
And yes, he actually said this.
“If not now, when? If not us, who?” – Kennedy
I am not a crook!
William Henry Harrison:
“The strongest of all governments is that which is most free.”
-Letter to Simón Bolívar (27 September 1829). Quoted in James Hall, A Memoir of the Public Services of William Henry Harrison, of Ohio (Philadelphia, PA: Key & Biddle, 1836)
“The only legitimate right to govern is an express grant of power from the governed.”
-Inaugural address (March 4, 1841)
“There is something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up.”
—President Obama