Top 100 Gerald R. Ford Quotes
#1. A coalition of groups is waging a massive propaganda campaign against the president of the United States. an all-out attack. Their aim is total victory for themselves and total defeat for him.
Gerald R. Ford
#2. I am a Ford, not a Lincoln. My addresses will never be as eloquent as Mr. Lincoln's. But I will do my very best to equal his brevity and his plain speaking.
Gerald R. Ford
#3. I am the first to admit that I am no great orator or no person that got where I have gotten by any William Jennings Bryan technique.
Gerald R. Ford
#4. Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. These events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America's leadership in the world.
Gerald R. Ford
#5. We must proceed with our own energy development. Exploitation of domestic petroleum and natural gas potentialities, along with nuclear, solar, geothermal, and non-fossil fuels is vital. We will never again permit any foreign nation to have Uncle Sam over a barrel of oil.
Gerald R. Ford
#6. Government exists to create and preserve conditions in which people can translate their ideas into practical reality. In the best of times, much is lost in translation. But we try.
Gerald R. Ford
#7. I have had a lot of adversaries in my political life, but no enemies that I can remember.
Gerald R. Ford
#8. I would like to deny all allegations by Bob Hope that during my last game of golf, I hit an eagle, a birdie, an elk and a moose.
Gerald R. Ford
#9. The political lesson of Watergate is this: Never again must America allow an arrogant, elite guard of political adolescents to by-pass the regular party organization and dictate the terms of a national election.
Gerald R. Ford
#10. It is good to be back in the Peoples House. But this cannot be a real homecoming. Under the Constitution, I now belong to the executive branch. The Supreme Court has even ruled that I am the executive branchhead, heart, and hand.
Gerald R. Ford
#11. Obviously, it's a great privilege and pleasure to be here at the Yale Law School Sesquicentennial Convocation. And I defy anyone to say that and chew gum at the same time.
Gerald R. Ford
#12. Our Nation has a diverse and extremely rich cultural heritage. It is a source of pride and strength to millions of Americans who look to the arts for inspiration, communication and the opportunity for creative self-expression.
Gerald R. Ford
#13. I cannot imagine any other country in the world where the opposition would seek, and the chief executive would allow, the dissemination of his most private and personal conversations with his staff, which, to be honest, do not exactly confer sainthood on anyone concerned.
Gerald R. Ford
#14. My commitment to the security and future of Israel is based upon basic morality as well as enlightened self-interest. Our role in supporting Israel honors our own heritage.
Gerald R. Ford
#15. 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.
Gerald R. Ford
#16. As President, I am determined to offer leadership to overcome our current economic problems. My goal is for jobs for all who want to work and economic opportunity for all who want to achieve.
Gerald R. Ford
#17. America needed recovery, not revenge. The hate had to be drained and the healing begun.
Gerald R. Ford
#18. I love sports. Whenever I can, I always watch the Detroit Tigers on the radio.
Gerald R. Ford
#19. All of us who served in one war or another know very well that all wars are the glory and the agony of the young.
Gerald R. Ford
#20. I was dumbfounded by the stupidity of the Watergate break-in.
Gerald R. Ford
#21. In baseball when they say you're out, you're out. It's the same way in politics.
Gerald R. Ford
#22. For millions of men and women, the church has been the hospital for the soul, the school for the mind and the safe depository for moral ideas.
Gerald R. Ford
#23. All my children have spoken for themselves since they first learned to speak, and not always with my advance approval, and I expect that to continue in the future.
Gerald R. Ford
#24. So much of what passes for public life consists of little more than candidates without ideas, hiring consultants without conviction, to stage campaigns without content. The result, increasingly, is elections without voters.
Gerald R. Ford
#26. I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, so I ask you to confirm me with your prayers.
Gerald R. Ford
#27. Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time.
Gerald R. Ford
#28. I had pro offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, who were pretty hard up for linemen in those days. If I had gone into professional football the name Jerry Ford might have been a household word today.
Gerald R. Ford
#29. Richard Nixon was just offered $2 million by Schick to do a television commercial - for Gillette.
Gerald R. Ford
#30. An American tragedy in which we all have played a part.
Gerald R. Ford
#31. It feels like getting a back massage from the Grim Reaper: one must get comfortable with the most horrifying things in the world.
Gerald R. Ford
#32. We came from many roots, and we have many branches.
Gerald R. Ford
#33. In a democracy, the public has a right to know not only what the government decides, but why and by what process.
Gerald R. Ford
#34. I have taken special interest in these accounts [of UFOs].. I think there may be substance to some of these reports ... I think we owe it to the people to establish credibility regarding UFOs and to produce the greatest possible enlightenment on this subject.
Gerald R. Ford
#35. We have too long treated the natural world as an adversary rather than as a life-sustaining gift from the Almighty. If man has the genius to build, which he has, he must also have the ability and the responsibility to preserve.
Gerald R. Ford
#36. I recognize the need for technology that enriches life while preserving our natural environment. My goal is to stimulate productivity, but use technology to redeem, not to destroy our environment.
Gerald R. Ford
#37. The pat on the back, the arm around the shoulder, the praise for what was done right and the sympathetic nod for what wasn't are as much a part of golf as life itself.
Gerald R. Ford
#38. As a man of the Congress, let me reaffirm my conviction that the collective wisdom of our two great legislative bodies, while not infallible, will in the end serve the people faithfully and very, very well.
Gerald R. Ford
#40. We ... declared our independence 200 years ago, and we are not about to lose it now to paper shufflers and computers.
Gerald R. Ford
#41. Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on, or someone must write "The End" to it. I have concluded that only I can do that. And if I can, I must.
Gerald R. Ford
#42. I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government, but civilization itself.
Gerald R. Ford
#43. Ronald Reagan was an excellent leader of our nation during challenging times at home and abroad.
Gerald R. Ford
#44. There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration ... The United States does notconcede that those countries are under the domination of the Soviet Union.
Gerald R. Ford
#45. The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time?
Gerald R. Ford
#46. For nearly two hundred years, our nation has derived its strength from the diversity of its people and of their beliefs. That strength has been greatly enhanced by [the Islamic] religious heritage.
Gerald R. Ford
#47. There are no adequate substitutes for father, mother, and children bound together in a loving commitment to nurture and protect. No government, no matter how well-intentioned, can take the place of the family in the scheme of things.
Gerald R. Ford
#48. America's leadership is essential. America's resources are vast. America's opportunities are unprecedented.
Gerald R. Ford
#49. My goal is for a cooperative world at peace, using its resources to build, not to destroy.
Gerald R. Ford
#50. Even though this is late in an election year, there is no way we can go forward except together and no way anybody can win except by serving the people's urgent needs. We cannot stand still or slip backwards. We must go forward now together.
Gerald R. Ford
#51. Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them - a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.
Gerald R. Ford
#52. I've had a lot of experience with people smarter than I am.
Gerald R. Ford
#53. An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.
Gerald R. Ford
#54. It's the quality of the ordinary, the straight, the square, that accounts for the great stability and success of our nation. It's a quality to be proud of. But it's a quality that many people seem to have neglected.
Gerald R. Ford
#55. I had a life-long ambition to be a professional baseball player, but nobody would sign me.
Gerald R. Ford
#56. A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
Gerald R. Ford
#57. To me, the Presidency and the Vice-Presidency were not prizes to be won, but a duty to be done.
Gerald R. Ford
#58. Humor can help you to disagree without being disagreeable. The key in democracy is not necessarily that we agree, but that we participate ... Despite all the heavy problems- domestic and international- there is humor. Humor transcends partisanship.
Gerald R. Ford
#59. The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep.
Gerald R. Ford
#60. Things are the way they are now, more than they ever have been before.
Gerald R. Ford
#61. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.
Gerald R. Ford
#62. Mr. President, putting it bluntly, wouldn't we just be continuing a bloodbath that already exists in Cambodia if we voted the 222 million in aid?
Gerald R. Ford
#63. I do believe, with all my heart and mind and spirit, that I, not as President but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy.
Gerald R. Ford
#64. The old question still remains: Can a free people restrain crime without sacrificing fundamental liberties and a heritage of compassion?
Gerald R. Ford
#65. My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our constitution works.
Gerald R. Ford
#66. Conservatism has always meant more to me than simply sticking up for private property & free enterprise. It has also meant defending our heritage & preserving our values.
Gerald R. Ford
#67. As I rejected amnesty, so I reject revenge. I ask all Americans who ever asked for goodness and mercy in their lives, who ever sought forgiveness for their trespasses, to join in rehabilitating all the casualties of the tragic conflict of the past.
Gerald R. Ford
#68. One of the enduring truths of the nation's capital is that bureaucrats survive.
Gerald R. Ford
#69. Never be satisfied with less than your very best effort. If you strive for the top and miss, you'll still 'beat the pack.'
Gerald R. Ford
#70. There is no undertaking more challenging, no responsibility more awesome, than that of being a mother.
Gerald R. Ford
#72. It's discouraging how hard it is for a President to slice away large chunks of a $305 billion budget.
Gerald R. Ford
#73. Real assistance is to help people to help themselves. We can't do everything for everybody, but there is room for all who try to make it.
Gerald R. Ford
#74. I have always felt that the real purpose of government is to enhance the lives of people and that a leader can best do that by restraining government in most cases instead of enlarging it at every opportunity.
Gerald R. Ford
#75. Let us put an end to self-inflicted wounds. Let us remember that our national unity is a most priceless asset. Let us deny our adversaries the satisfaction of using Vietnam to pit Americans against Americans.
Gerald R. Ford
#77. A great nation cannot abandon its responsibilities. Responsibilities abandoned today return as more acute crises tomorrow.
Gerald R. Ford
#78. We are bound together by the most powerful of all ties, our fervent love for freedom and independence, which knows no homeland but the human heart.
Gerald R. Ford
#79. Personal excellence can be achieved by a visionary goal, through planning, dedicated execution, and total follow-through.
Gerald R. Ford
#80. The Federal role in overcoming barriers to needed health care should emphasize health care financing programs-such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Gerald R. Ford
#81. There is an old saying, The harder you try the luckier you get. I kind of like that definition of luck.
Gerald R. Ford
#82. He was one of the few political leaders I have ever met whose public speeches revealed more than his private conversations. [On Ronald Reagan]
Gerald R. Ford
#83. I just don't think we should go hellfire damnation around the globe freeing people, unless it is directly related to our own national security.
Gerald R. Ford
#84. If Lincoln were alive today he'd be turning over in his grave.
Gerald R. Ford
#85. I would hope that understanding and reconciliation are not limited to the 19th hole alone.
Gerald R. Ford
#86. If I went back to college again, I'd concentrate on two areas learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.
Gerald R. Ford
#87. I can assure you the National Federation is an organization of Republican women whose power, prestige, perception, and purpose will never be underestimated by anyone.
Gerald R. Ford
#88. The length of one's days matters less than the love of one's family and friends.
Gerald R. Ford
#89. Teddy Roosevelt ... once said, 'Speak softly and carry a big stick.' Jimmy Carter wants to speak loudly and carry a fly swatter.
Gerald R. Ford
#90. The spirit of seeking understanding through personal contact with people of other nations and other cultures deserves the respect and support of all.
Gerald R. Ford
#91. I don't know what the future may hold for me-or for any of us. But I want you to know that I am a man who likes having critics who are not enemies.
Gerald R. Ford
#92. I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right.
Gerald R. Ford
#94. Ronald Regan doesn't dye his hair - he's just prematurely orange.
Gerald R. Ford
#95. Let America symbolize humanity's struggle to conquer nature and master technology. The time has now come for our Government to facilitate the individual's control over his or her future-and of the future of America.
Gerald R. Ford
#96. History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.
Gerald R. Ford
#97. Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule.
Gerald R. Ford
#98. I am determined to seek self-sufficiency in energy as an urgent national priority. My goal is to make America independent of foreign energy sources by 1985.
Gerald R. Ford
#99. We must introduce a new balance in the relationship between the individual and the government
a balance that favors greater individual freedom and self-reliance.
Gerald R. Ford
#100. I remain convinced that pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do.
Gerald R. Ford
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