“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
“It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose your own.”
“Fame is a vapor, popularity is an accident, riches take wings, those who cheer today may curse tomorrow and only one thing endures - character.”
“Republicans approve of the American farmer, but they are willing to help him go broke. They stand four-square for the American home — but not for housing. They are strong for labor — but they are stronger for restricting labor's rights. They favor minimum wage — the smaller the minimum wage the better. They endorse educational opportunity for all — but they won't spend money for teachers or for schools. They think modern medical care and hospitals are fine — for people who can afford them. They consider electrical power a great blessing — but only when the private power companies get their rake-off. They think American standard of living is a fine thing — so long as it doesn't spread to all the people. And they admire of Government of the United States so much that they would like to buy it.”
“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”
“The only thing new in the world is the history you do not know.”
“If you can't convince them, confuse them.”
“I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell.”
“We must remember that the test of our religious principles lies not just in what we say, not only in our prayers, not even in living blameless lives - but in what we do for others”
“I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.”
“Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.”
“Never kick a fresh turd on a hot day.”
“We should resolve now that the health of this nation is a national concern; that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed; that the health of all it's citizens deserves the help of all the nation.”
“My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference.”
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a Republican. But I repeat myself.”
“The Republicans believe in the minimum wage — the more the minimum, the better.”
“There's nothing better than cake but more cake.”
“The fundamental basis of this nation's laws was given to Moses on the Mount…If we don't have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in rights for anybody except the State.”
“Once a decision was made, I didn't worry about it afterward…”
“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.”
“You want a friend in this city? [Washington, DC.] Get a dog!”
“I fired MacArthur because he wouldn't respect the authority of the president. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was.”
“Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship. ”
“A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.”
“Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd lie just to keep his hand in. ”
“[The American President] has to take all sorts of abuse from liars and demagogues.… The people can never understand why the President does not use his supposedly great power to make ’em behave. Well, all the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”
“In reading the lives of great men, I found that the first victory they won was over themselves… self-discipline with all of them came first.”
“America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”
“In most of my campaigns, I find it is best not to mention my opponent by name because, by doing so, it just gives him a chance to get into the headlines.”