Past Presidents Quotes

#1. In the past, presidents had been consulted about those kinds of decisions by SGs, and I thought it was the right thing to do.

Donald Verrilli Jr.

#2. As past presidents of the Liberal Party, we deeply regret and are greatly saddened by the precipitate action by some party officers and members at the Manila Hotel.

Florencio Abad

#3. Past presidents entered the room. "Republicans and Democrats getting along?" Jake asked. "Daddy always said the two parties were meant to keep Americans divided while big changes were legislated under the smokescreen of political infighting.

J. Nell Brown

#4. I deal with guys in their 20s and early 30s who are presidents of companies, who are movie directors.

Peter Criss

#5. I wasn't any good at sports, but I could name all the presidents by the time I was six. I've always been very interested in politics and in religion.

John Fugelsang

#6. Seven presidents before him - Democrats and Republicans - tried to expand health care to all Americans. President Obama got it done.

Julian Castro

#7. I don't think we'll solve the problem of the deficit until three things happen: We need more discipline on spending in Congress. We need a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to balance the budget. And we need to give our presidents a line-item veto.

Ronald Reagan

#8. Barack Obama's victories in 2008 and 2012 were dismissed by some of his critics as merely symbolic for African Americans. But there is nothing "mere" about symbols.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

#9. I find as I grow older, I love those most, whom I loved first.

Thomas Jefferson

#10. In every era going back to Lincoln with Frederick Douglass, presidents talk to those that were leading at that time.

Al Sharpton

#11. Presidents have a right to certain prerogatives, including the expectation of a certain deference. He's the president; this is history. But we seem to have come a long way since Ronald Reagan was regularly barked at by Sam Donaldson, almost literally, and the president shrugged it off.

Peggy Noonan

#12. Our priests and presidents, our surgeons and lawyers, our educators and newscasters need worry less about satisfying the demands of their discipline than the demands of good showmanship.

Neil Postman

#13. Now, today is the day we honor, of course, the Presidents, ranging from George Washington, who couldn't tell a lie, to George Bush, who couldn't tell the truth, to Bill Clinton, who couldn't tell the difference.

Jay Leno

#14. Each one of us is an individual, just like talk show hosts are different from one another, and newspaper columnists are different from each other. So, former presidents are different from each other, too. Some have gone into relative seclusion. Some have decided to teach.

Jimmy Carter

#15. Stupid presidents, smart presidents, white presidents, black presidents
doesn't work! What this country needs is a crazy Third World dictator. And Donald Trump has what it takes to be that. He's already got a plane with his name on it, solid gold buildings, a harem ...

Lewis Black

#16. As a candidate, Clinton had - as all candidates do - torn into his predecessor for coddling China and promised that he would get tough on China's human rights abuses. As president, Clinton had - as all presidents do - come to see that the reality was a bit more complicated.

Michael Tomasky

#17. We're making this as entertainment. But God willing, if this show stays on and people see a woman in that office for a while, I think it will help people become more used to it. It's certainly about time that we had a few female presidents.

Geena Davis

#18. Presidents often disappoint, but first ladies rarely do.

Kitty Kelley

#19. Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.
[Shrub Flubs His Dub, The Nation, June 18, 2001]

Molly Ivins

#20. Don't you think it's funny that the presidents are still expected to build libraries when hardly anyone reads books? I read a study that said less than ten percent of adults read a book in the past year.

Dustin Lawson

#21. I would rather be an independent senator, governed by my own views, going for the good of the country, uncontrolled by any thing which mortal man can bring to bear upon me, than to be president of the United States, put there as presidents of the United States have been for many years past.

John C. Calhoun

#22. Obama does not need to worry as much as past Democratic presidents about being labeled soft on national security - not after giving the order that led to the assassination of Osama bin Laden. No, his biggest concern is being labeled tone deaf on joblessness and debt.

Ron Fournier

#23. All modern U.S. presidents are perforce politicians, prisoners of their past pronouncements, their party, their constituency, and their colleagues.

Tony Judt

#24. As the proud father of two teens and past Chairman to the Presidents Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, I am committed to educating parents and especially young people on ways to live a long, healthy and active life.

Lee Haney

#25. Over the past five years, I've met several presidents, several secretaries of education ... and there is no plan. If you want to save your children, you're going to have to do it yourself. It's just us.

Geoffrey Canada

#26. It's interesting what former presidents do when they leave office. Bush is now working as a motivational speaker. And if you want to be motivated, who better to turn to than the guy who invaded the wrong country and started a depression.

David Letterman

#27. Even if you assume presidents were democratically elected they still have no right to keep secrets from the American people.

Howard Zinn

#28. Conservatives don't want to read good, smart books. They mostly want to read Fox and talk radio hosts writing about presidents.

Alex Pareene

#29. President Obama came to office proclaiming that he aims to solve problems, not hand them on to our children. Most presidents say that sort of thing.

Christopher Buckley

#30. There are examples of ex-presidents speaking out. Jimmy Carter has not held back on a variety of issues. Harry Truman didn't.

Robert Dallek

#31. That depends on what your definition of 'is' is.

Bill Clinton

#32. When things don't go well they like to blame presidents; and that's something that presidents are paid for.

John F. Kennedy

#33. All information belongs to everybody all the time. It should be available. It should be accessible to the child, to the woman, to the man, to the old person, to the semiliterate, to the presidents of universities, to everyone. It should be open.

Maya Angelou

#34. So I start my mission- leave my residence
Thinkin how could I get some dead presidents

Rakim

#35. An important governorship used to be the best springboard for would-be presidents.

Gore Vidal

#36. George W. Bush is the worst President
in all of American history.

Helen Thomas

#37. Presidents don't make new friends. That's why they've got to keep their old ones. Adm. Fitzwallace

Aaron Sorkin

#38. In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.

P. J. O'Rourke

#39. I've had big record label presidents look me in the face and say, 'Your music sucks, you don't know who you are, your music is all over the place, and we don't know how to market this stuff. Pick a lane and come back to us.'

Bruno Mars

#40. I have been able to watch the Clintons and The Clinton Foundation; Al Gore and what he did post-losing the whole Florida thing. There's a grand tradition of a lot of interesting stuff that happens to these post-presidents.

David Mandel

#41. As I've gotten older, I've gotten more liberal, and my father is increasingly conservative. It's so shocking to me because I always thought we had the same politics. The day I realized we voted for different presidents, I practically fell out of my chair.

Lauren Graham

#42. I do not believe that the children of presidents or vice-presidents should be assigned to combat zones. They have no place there.

John Eisenhower

#43. Presidents are always also storytellers, purveyors of useful national mythologies. And surprisingly enough, Richard Nixon, this awkward man who didn't even really like people, had not been so bad at this duty - at least in the first four years of his presidency.

Rick Perlstein

#44. I have seen that our best presidents were the do-nothing presidents: Millard Fillmore, Warren G. Harding. When you have a president who does things, we are all in serious trouble. If he does anything at all, if he gets up at night to go the bathroom, somehow, mystically, trouble will ensue.

Utah Phillips

#45. Presidents are not only the country's principal policy chief, shaping the nation's domestic and foreign agendas, but also the most visible example of our values.

Robert Dallek

#46. I write about presidents. That means I write about guys - so far. I'm interested in the people closest to them, the people they love and the people they've lost ... I don't want to limit it to what they did in the office, but what happens at home and in their interactions with other people.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

#47. Someone once called Lincoln two-faced. "If I am two-faced, would I wear the face that I have now?" Lincoln asked.

Judith St. George

#48. The War Powers Act requires presidents to seek the consent of the American people, through their representatives, before sending our troops into war. It is the responsibility of Congress to deliberate and consult with the executive branch before involving ourselves in a military conflict.

Charles B. Rangel