(With fully respect to all American Presidents, here are quotes of some American Presidents. Happy Presidents Day!)
“As the sword was the last resort for the preservation of our liberties, so it ought to be the first to be laid aside when those liberties are firmly established.” – 1776
George Washington
“Let me have my farm, family and goose quill, and all the honors and offices this world has to bestow may go to those who deserve them better and desire them more. I court them not.”
John Adams
“Nature intended me for the tranquil pursuits of science, by rendering them by supreme delight. But the enormities of the times in which I have lived have forced me to take a part in resisting them, and to commit myself on the boisterous ocean of political passions.” – 1809
Thomas Jefferson
“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
Abraham Lincoln
The indiscriminate denunciation of the rich is mischievous. It perverts the mind, poisons the heart and furnishes an excuse to crime. No poor man was ever made richer or happier by it. It is quite as illogical to despise a man because he is rich as because he is poor. Not what he is, settles his class. We can not right matters by taking from one what he has honestly acquired to bestow upon another what he has not earned.” – 1898
Benjamin Harrison
“Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law. It is sometimes sneeringly said by those who do hot like free government, that here we count heads. True, heads are counted, but brains also. And the general sense of 63 millions of free people is better and safer than the sense of any favored few, born to nobility and ruling by inheritance.” – 1891
William McKinley
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” – 1918
Theodore Roosevelt
“It is not men that interest or disturb me primarily; it is ideas. Ideas live; men die.”
Woodrow Wilson
“We look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms, ... freedom of speech and expression ... freedom of every person to worship God in his own way ... freedom from want ... freedom from fear.” – 1941
Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Three things can ruin a man – money, power, and women. I never had any money, I never wanted power, and the only woman in my life is up at the house right now.”
Harry S Truman
“It should be clear by now that a nation can be no stronger abroad than she is at home. Only an America which practices what it preaches about equal rights and social justice will be respected by those whose choice affects our future.”
John F. Kennedy
(undelivered speech, Dallas, 1963)
“I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad. In all my public and private acts as your President, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.” – 1974
Gerald R. Ford
“Confidence has defined our course (as a nation) and has served as the link between generations. We’ve always believed in something called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. Our people are lising the faith. Not only in government itself but in the ability as citizens to serve as the ultimate rulers and shapers of our democracy.” – 1979
Jimmy Carter
“What I’d really like to do is go down in history as the President who made Americans believe in themselves again.” – 1981
“Freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few; it is the universal right of all God’s children. Look to where peace and prosperity flourish today. It is in homes that freedom built. Victories against poverty are greatest and peace most secure where people live by laws that insure free press, free speech, and freedom to worship, vote, and create wealth.”
Ronald Reagan – State of the Union address, 1985
“The day will come – and it is not far off – when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.” – 1990
George Bush
“I refuse to be part of a generation that celebrates the death of communism abroad with the loss of the American Dream at home.”
Bill Clinton – declaration of candidacy for president, October 3, 1991
“These acts shattered steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve ... America was targeted for attack because we’re the brightest beacons for freedom and opportunity in the world. And no one will keep that light from shining.”
George W. Bush – (Presidential address, September 11, 2001)
We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
Barack Obama – (Inaugural speech, January 20, 2009)
Source: The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents by William A. Degregorio
Pictures:
http://arlie3.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/portrait_of_george_washington.jpg
http://www.powerlineblog.com/media/archives/lincoln.jpg
http://www.djztrip.com/obama/obama_hope.png
