Presidential Quotes

#1. In creating superdelegates, the Democratic Party recognized the expertise that its top holders of public office have gained by running for office themselves. They are experts at winning. They know the issues. They are in a unique position to evaluate presidential candidates.

Jim Hunt

#2. Human life without death would be something other than human; consciousness of mortality gives rise to our deepest longings and greatest accomplishments. - LEON KASS, CHAIR OF THE PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON BIOETHICS, 2003

Ray Kurzweil

#3. Goods produced under conditions which do not meet a rudimentary standard to decency should be regarded as contraband and not allowed to pollute the channels of international commerce.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

#4. When I listen to the complaints that follow just about every presidential debate, I'm reminded of the well-worn joke about the Jewish mother who buys her son two shirts. When he shows up at dinner wearing one, she says: 'What's the matter? You didn't like the other one?'

Jeff Greenfield

#5. Ronald Reagan, of course, was a Republican governor of California who went through a painful defeat in the 1976 presidential race before winning four years later.

Michael Medved

#6. Experts are saying that President Bush's goal now is to politically humiliate Saddam Hussein. Why don't we just make him the next Democratic presidential nominee?

Jay Leno

#7. I am committed to ensure that our 2008 Republican presidential candidates forthrightly address issues of importance to the African-American community.

Ken Mehlman

#8. If elected, I shall see to it that every man has a square deal, no less and no more.

Theodore Roosevelt

#9. Any time you get into a presidential campaign and the stakes are so high, all candidates - they want to be in complete control whenever they can. And you can't blame them for that.

Bob Schieffer

#10. A decent and manly examination of the acts of government should not only be tolerated, but encouraged.

William Henry Harrison

#11. For one true measure of a nation is its success in fulfilling the promise of a better life for each of its members. Let this be the measure of our nation.

John F. Kennedy

#12. Sarah Palin has managed to use her failed vice presidential run to put herself in a position of power and influence. Joe Biden won the race and he hasn't been able to put himself in a position of power and influence.

Craig Ferguson

#13. I had hoped that the current presidential campaign debates might educate the public as to what is really involved in the ongoing controversy over campaign financing.

James L. Buckley

#14. Are you better off than you were four years ago? One of my favorite quotes Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores ... Is there more or less unemployment?

Ronald Reagan

#15. Whatever doubt there may be as to the quality or purpose of our free speech we certainly have ample volumes in production.

Herbert Hoover

#16. Remember, the first presidential candidate to reject public financing for both the primary and general election was ... Barack Obama, in 2008. He did it, in spite of a flat pledge to the contrary, because his campaign saw that it could vastly outspend John McCain.

Jeff Greenfield

#17. A presidential debate is a job interview. And voters look for certain traits in people applying to be president.

Ron Fournier

#18. Nowhere has the political power of coal been more obvious than in presidential campaigns.

Jeff Goodell

#19. I say women exhibit the most exalted virtue when they depart from the domestic circle and enter on the concerns of their country, of humanity, and of their G-d!

John Quincy Adams

#20. I'm a psychologist. I was a psychology faculty member, and then I became an administrator of the department, then the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. At the time of the presidential search, I was the dean.

I. King Jordan

#21. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign announced that it raised over $1.5 million in the 24 hours after he announced his bid. Meanwhile, a 12-year-old on Kickstarter just raised $7 million in five minutes after announcing his idea for juice box water guns.

Jimmy Fallon

#22. Want More Advice Like This?

Theodore Roosevelt

#23. The press doesn't just cover presidential campaigns, they influence them by making arbitrary decisions about who is 'top tier' and merits coverage.

Mark McKinnon

#24. Political impotence is finished. Today is the beginning of the orgasm. All the people, I promise you, will feel the orgasm of next year's presidential election.

Vladimir Zhirinovsky

#25. I have said that control of arms is a mission that we undertake particularly for our children and our grandchildren and that they have no lobby in Washington.

John F. Kennedy

#26. In 1800, in the first interparty contest, the Federalists warned that presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson, because of his sympathy expressed at the outset of the French Revolution, was 'the son of a half-breed Indian squaw' who would put opponents under the guillotine.

Robert Dallek

#27. Cross the wrong state border with your gun, or wake up one morning to new legislation or a new presidential executive order, and suddenly you're the bad guy, not the good guy. No wonder some gun owners seem so touchy; they feel, at some level, like criminals in waiting.

Walter Kirn

#28. Presidential and vice-presidential debates are not about campaign staff or consultants, and it is high time we as a people took control and reminded them and their candidates of that important fact.

Bob Barr

#29. Over there you think of nothing but becoming President of the United States some day. Potentially every man is Presidential timber. Here it's different. Here every man is potentially a zero. If you become something or somebody it is an accident, a miracle.

Henry Miller

#30. The President hears a hundred voices telling him that he is the greatest man in the world. He must listen carefully indeed to hear the one voice that tells him his is not.

Harry S. Truman

#31. No presidential candidate should visit Las Vegas without condemning organized gambling.

Ralph Nader

#32. If you don't feel something strongly you're not going to achieve.

George W. Bush

#33. I believe over the long term he's going to have the money, and he's got the message, that this is going to be one of the finalists for the presidential campaign.

Ted Cruz

#34. Don't automatically obey Presidential directives if you disagree or if you suspect he hasn't considered key aspects of the issue.

Donald Rumsfeld

#35. I'm not sure Lincoln would fare well if he were a presidential candidate today.

David Herbert Donald

#36. The Democrats current crudeness is a function of their desperation, and the imminent ratification of Howard Dean, the least charming presidential candidate in recent memory, as their party chairman only serves to punctuate the problem.

Joe Klein

#37. In the 1960 campaign, Arthur Schlesinger wrote of Adlai Stevenson, who already lost twice as the party's presidential nominee, He has been away from power too long; he gives me an odd sense of unreality, a certain frivolity, distractedness, over-interest in words and phrases.

David Pietrusza

#38. One presidential advisor to another: If the world made sense, we'd all have to find honest work.

Tom Clancy

#39. I'm pretty good at sticking to what I know. You don't see me social commentating on health-care or presidential debates. I talk about what I know because I'm petrified of being wrong.

Gary Vaynerchuk

#40. Florentyna sent a directive to all managers in the Group that the finest suite in each hotel was no longer to be the Presidential Suite but was to be renamed the George Novak Suite.

Jeffrey Archer

#41. It is only the words of the bill that have presidential approval, where that approval is given. It is not to be supposed that in signing a bill the President endorses the whole Congressional Record.

Robert H. Jackson

#42. I was extended secret service protection during my presidential run in 1984, when I received the most death threats ever made toward a candidate.

Jesse Jackson

#43. [O]nce demagogy and falsehoods become routine, there isn't much for the political journalist to do except handicap the race and report on the candidate's mood.

George Packer

#44. Presidential coverage used to be a very serious endeavor.

Nina Easton

#45. This week Biden said that he will decide on a potential 2016 presidential campaign by the spring or the summer. Then he said, 'Whichever comes first.'

Jimmy Fallon

#46. A new presidential poll reveals that Democrats have the edge among voters under 30. The good news for Republicans is that there's only six people under 30 who actually vote.

Conan O'Brien

#47. Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts - including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state.

John F. Kennedy

#48. If I can get on the presidential ballot in all 50 states and be allowed into the debates, I'd not only run, I'd win.

Jesse Ventura

#49. In seeking the help of the Congress and our countrymen, I pledged no easy answers. I pledged, and asked, only toil and dedication. These the Congress and the people have given in good measure.

John F. Kennedy

#50. Former President George W. Bush has hired a man to lead his presidential think tank in Dallas. The man was hired because he was the only candidate who could say the words, 'George W. Bush think tank' with a straight face.

Conan O'Brien

#51. When liberals start acting like they're opposed to pre-marital sex and mothers having careers, you know McCain's vice presidential choice has knocked them back on their heels.

Ann Coulter

#52. Certain documents, such as the FISA court order allowing collection of telephone records and Obama's presidential directive to prepare offensive cyber-operations, were among the US government's most closely held secrets. Deciphering the archive and the NSA's language

Glenn Greenwald

#53. Actually, I think all addiction starts with soda. Every junkie did soda first. But no one counts that. Maybe they should. The soda connection is clear. Why isn't a presidential commission looking into this? Or at least some guys from the National Carbonation Council.

Chris Rock

#54. It's important to remember that whatever the presidential candidates of either party say, they will have to interact with the United States Congress, particularly the Senate, when it comes to crafting policy.

Tom Cotton

#55. I regret that a private comment I made to the vice presidential candidate made it through the public airways.

George W. Bush

#56. The presidential news conference is indispensable because it is the only forum in our society where you can be questioned on a regular basis and held accountable.

Helen Thomas

#57. I perfectly understood President Obama's attitude throughout the French presidential campaign. He had no reason to distance himself from Nicolas Sarkozy. It's the basic solidarity that leaders who worked together owe to each other.

Francois Hollande

#58. Mitt Romney, two-time Republican presidential hopeful, boxed former heavyweight champion of the world Evander Holyfield for charity. It was a horrible moment when Romney bit off Holyfield's other ear.

David Letterman

#59. It is obvious that while science is struggling to bring Heaven to earth some men are using its materials in the construction of Hell.

Herbert Hoover

#60. You know very well that whether you are on page one or page thirty depends on whether they fear you. It's as simple as that.

Richard M. Nixon

#61. The banks own the corporations. In a capitalist society, the corporations have the most capital (money), and therefore they have the most influence. Presidential elections are funded by corporations, and in return the elected officials serve the interest of the corporations that supported them.

Joseph P. Kauffman

#62. What sort of job can you hold in America in which it is safe to hold the personal conviction that same-sex marriage is wrong? The answer: there is no such job. Except Democratic presidential candidate in 2008. Then you're fine.

Ben Shapiro

#63. There are a number of Americans who shouldn't vote. The number is 57 percent, to judge by the combined total of Clinton and Perot ballots in the 1996 presidential election.

P. J. O'Rourke

#64. And I agree that the Democratic legislators in Massachusetts might have given some advice to Republicans in Congress about how to cooperate. But the fact of the matter is we used the same advisers and they say it's the same plan.

Barack Obama

#65. American presidential leadership never goes out of style.

Monica Crowley

#66. It's only when they join together in a forward movement that this country moves ahead ...

John F. Kennedy

#67. I've got two Rolexes that I'm very proud of - a gold Presidential that was a gift and a white gold one I gifted myself. I'm trying to step my game up and get a few more of those.

J. Cole

#68. No other President ever enjoyed the Presidency as I did.

Theodore Roosevelt

#69. I will never lie to you.

Jimmy Carter

#70. Um, yeah. For instance, take, you know, take, for instance, the issue of -- I'm drawing a blank, and I hate it when I do that, particularly on television.
-- potential McCain VP candidate Mark Sanford, asked on CNN to name differences in economic policy between Bush and McCain

Mark Sanford

#71. On the other side, I do believe that the rhetoric we are seeing from the Democrats today is unprecedented, is a new low in presidential politics and goes beyond political discourse and amounts to political hate speech.

Ed Gillespie

#72. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz did their best Donald Trump impersonation. All three unleashing an unprecedented string of insults and attacks fit more for a barroom than a presidential debate stage.

Chris Hayes

#73. Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor.

John F. Kennedy

#74. I have seen in many places housing which has been developed under government influences, but I have never seen any projects in which governments have played their part which have fountains and statues and grass and trees, which are as important to the concept of the home as the roof itself.

John F. Kennedy

#75. The curious defiled past him, after squeezing the Presidential fingers into the room, and settled either on the sofa or chairs or remained standing for protracted observations.

Henry Villard

#76. We are indebted to the Book of books (Bible) for our national ideals and institution. Their preservation rests in adhering to it's precepts.

Herbert Hoover

#77. My legal bond with the A.K.P. may have ended the day I took the presidential oath of office, but my bonds of love have never ended and never will.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

#78. The arguments in the Brexit vote and in the American presidential campaign are about the same. In a friendly way, may I also give some advice to the American people to make the right choice when the moment comes.

Francois Hollande

#79. We asked for God's help; and now, in this shining outcome, in this magnificent triumph of good over evil, we should thank God.

George H. W. Bush

#80. It was Bill Clinton who once pithily captured the contrast between the two parties when it came to selecting a presidential standard-bearer: Democrats want to fall in love; Republicans just fall in line.

Mark Halperin

#81. Every now and then, a presidential candidate surprises us with a truly human and honest moment.

Ron Fournier

#82. Not a day goes by that I don't click on RealClearPolitics at least once, the presidential poll charts, graphs and moving averages are great. If RCP didn't already exist, somebody would have to invent it.

Charlie Cook

#83. Americans long to be united. After 9/11, we all just wanted to be one nation. Not a single American on September the 12, 2001, cared who won the next presidential election.

William J. Clinton

#84. Presidential candidate Donald Trump had a meeting with Ted Cruz. He said he does not know why he agreed to fly to New York to meet Ted Cruz and then he promised to bring that kind of leadership to the Oval Office.

Conan O'Brien

#85. Today the Washington Post did an article; they compared the 2008 presidential election to the 1932 presidential election. They did a comparison, mainly because 1932 was the first time John McCain ran for president.

Conan O'Brien

#86. We are a nation that has a government-not the other way around. And that makes us special among the nations of the earth.

Ronald Reagan

#87. Political discourse has become so rotten that it's no longer possible to tell the stench of one presidential candidate from the stink of another.

P. J. O'Rourke

#88. If this isn't the Fat Lady singing, it's awful close to that. If Ari seriously thought she was a contender for the presidential nomination, he would not walk away right now.

Stuart Rothenberg

#89. Great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.

Thomas Jefferson

#90. Thousand points of light.

George H. W. Bush

#91. Mob rule can not be allowed to override the decisions of our courts.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

#92. I feel the political failings of the U.S.A. are presidential in length, but the aspirant narrative of the States is millennial in length.

Jim Crace

#93. Working on your biceps? Try chopping down a cherry tree.

George Washington

#94. The emigrants although of different parties and different religious sects all flew from persecution in pursuit of liberty.

James Monroe

#95. Today, the L.A. Times accused Arnold Schwarzenegger of groping six women. I'm telling ya, this guy is presidential material.

David Letterman

#96. Even after the Rosenthal column, nobody responsible in the Republican Party said, 'Yes, Pat Buchanan is an anti-Semite.' They didn't join in. Very few journalists joined in. What happened was, when he entered the presidential politics, then he entered a new level of criticism and attack on him.

Robert Novak

#97. It is still a fact that our common frontier grows stronger every year, defended only by friendship.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

#98. The disfranchisement of a single legal elector by fraud or intimidation is a crime too grave to be regarded lightly.

Benjamin Harrison

#99. The White House is a bully pulpit.

Theodore Roosevelt

#100. When liberals' presidential nominees consistently fail to carry Kansas, liberals do not rush to read a book titled "What's the Matter With Liberals' Nominees?" No, the book they turned into a bestseller is titled "What's the Matter With Kansas?" Notice a pattern here?

George Will