Top 100 Quotes About Gerald Ford
#1. Future historians will be able to study at the Jimmy Carter Library, the Gerald Ford Library, the Ronald Reagan Library, and the Bill Clinton Adult Bookstore.
George Carlin
#2. In the Bob Hope Golf Classic, the participation of President Gerald Ford was more than enough to remind you that the nuclear button was at one stage at the disposal of a man who might have either pressed it by mistake or else pressed it deliberately in order to obtain room service.
Clive James
#3. Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton.
Jimmy Carter
#4. I met Gerald Ford. I met Richard Nixon. I met Jimmy Carter. I met Dwight Eisenhower when he was a general. George Bush senior. I haven't met Bill Clinton or George W. Bush, although I got a letter from him.
Pete Rose
#5. Drones are a tool, not a policy. The policy is assassination. While every president since Gerald Ford has upheld an executive order banning assassinations by U.S. personnel, Congress has avoided legislating the issue or even defining the word assassination.
Jeremy Scahill
#6. He (former President Gerald Ford) made it very clear that he did not agree with the reasons President Bush laid out for the war, namely the belief that there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or that there was some obligation that the United States or the president had to expand democracy.
Bob Woodward
#7. Gerald Ford, one of the most admirable presidents of our time, once observed that if Lincoln were alive today, he'd be turning over in his grave. With
David McCullough
#8. Though it was never a goal in life, it has occurred to me that I've met six presidents of the United States. OK, I met four of them before they became president, including Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, No. 43.
Dan Jenkins
#9. In the last 100 years only Presidents George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford lost their bids for reelection. President Lyndon Johnson did not run for a second term.
Juan Williams
#10. Gerald Ford brought to the political arena no demons, no hidden agenda, no hit list or acts of vengeance. He knew who he was, and he didn't require consultants or gurus to change him.
Tom Brokaw
#11. I don't remember a big fight between the Republicans and Democrats in the Nixon administration or President Gerald Ford and so on.
Stewart Udall
#12. One of our worst traits in journalism is that when we have a narrative in our minds, we often plug in anecdotes that confirm it. Thus we managed to portray President Gerald Ford, a first-rate athlete, as a klutz.
Nicholas Kristof
#13. We want accountability. We just buried a president [President Gerald Ford] who did not hold another president [President Nixon] accountable for war crimes and that's why we're in Iraq right now. Our leaders who get us into these messes are the ones who need to be held accountable.
Cindy Sheehan
#14. My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age. His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.
Betty Ford
#15. Nixon was a good president on the environment. Gerald Ford was good.
Stewart Udall
#16. I had a lot of fun bantering back and forth with Kennedy. But for ease and comfort, it would be Gerald Ford. He was a down-home type. I came from the Midwest and he came from the Midwest. He was nonaggressive and kindly.
Helen Thomas
#17. I was born in 1970 and I got to see a little bit of [Richard] Nixon's attempts at redefining himself. I saw [Gerald] Ford.
David Mandel
#18. In Gerald Ford, the man he was in public, he was also that man in private.
Tom Brokaw
#19. Gerald Ford was unknown throughout America. Now he's unknown throughout the world.
Groucho Marx
#20. He's [Gerald Ford] a nice guy but he played too much football with his helmet off.
Lyndon B. Johnson
#21. President Gerald Ford was no intellectual, but he had served with distinction in combat as a naval gunnery officer and then as Congressman for a quarter century.
Nigel Hamilton
#22. I was very young, and I remember this heated, passionate argument and trying to figure out some place called Vietnam, something called a Watergate, and some guy named Gerald Ford who my dad knew who had just become president, and how all these things fit together.
Bill Huizenga
#23. US President Gerald Ford's golf was so bad we thought he was a 'Hitman for the PGA!
Bob Hope
#24. Chronicling the mid-1970s up session with Gerald Ford's clumsiness, the author quotes a medieval maxim that the king has two bodies. The head of state has a physical body like everyone else, but he also represents the body politic, either reflecting its majesty or its weakness.
Rick Perlstein
#25. 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
#26. 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
#27. 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
#28. The Communist leaders in Moscow, Peking and Hanoi must fully understand that the United States considers the freedom of South Viet Nam vital to our interests. And they must know that we are not bluffing in our determination to defend those interests.
Gerald R. Ford
#29. 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
#30. 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
#31. 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
#32. I have had a lot of adversaries in my political life, but no enemies that I can remember.
Gerald R. Ford
#33. 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
#34. When a man is asked to make a speech, the first thing he has to decide is what to say.
Gerald R. Ford
#35. During the day on Monday, Washington time, the airport at Saigon came under persistent rocket as well as artillery fire and was effectively closed. The military situation in the area deteriorated rapidly. I therefore ordered the evacuation of all American personnel remaining in South Vietnam.
Gerald R. Ford
#36. 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
#37. 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
#38. 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
#39. 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
#40. 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
#42. 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
#43. 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
#44. 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
#45. We have come tardily to the tremendous task of cleaning up our environment. We should have moved with similar zeal at least a decade ago. But no purpose is served by post-mortems. With visionary zeal but the greatest realism, we must now address ourselves to the vast problems that confront us.
Gerald R. Ford
#46. America needed recovery, not revenge. The hate had to be drained and the healing begun.
Gerald R. Ford
#47. I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators.
Gerald R. Ford
#48. I love sports. Whenever I can, I always watch the Detroit Tigers on the radio.
Gerald R. Ford
#49. 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
#50. I was dumbfounded by the stupidity of the Watergate break-in.
Gerald R. Ford
#51. I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon.
Gerald R. Ford
#53. If compassion and mercy are not compatible with politics," Ford said, "then something is the matter with politics.
Nancy Gibbs
#54. In baseball when they say you're out, you're out. It's the same way in politics.
Gerald R. Ford
#55. 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
#56. 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
#57. 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
#59. 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
#60. Tell the truth, work hard, and come to dinner on time.
Gerald R. Ford
#61. 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
#62. Richard Nixon was just offered $2 million by Schick to do a television commercial - for Gillette.
Gerald R. Ford
#63. An American tragedy in which we all have played a part.
Gerald R. Ford
#64. 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
#65. We came from many roots, and we have many branches.
Gerald R. Ford
#66. Except from 2002 to 2010, we never went three years without buying a bank.
Gerald J. Ford
#67. 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
#68. 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
#69. 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
#70. 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
#71. 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
#72. Things are more like today than they have ever been before.
Gerald R. Ford
#73. My golf must be improving, I'm not hitting as many spectators.
Gerald R. Ford
#74. 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
#75. If Abraham Lincoln were alive now, he'd roll over in his grave.
Gerald Ford
#76. Frankly, I've never felt voting to be all that essential to the process.
Gerald R. Ford
#77. Rather than going through a commercial banking training program, at the first bank I ever worked in, I was the chairman. And it was my own money, so we loaned it out like it was my own money.
Gerald J. Ford
#78. The harder you work, the luckier you are, and I worked like hell.
Gerald R. Ford
#80. We ... declared our independence 200 years ago, and we are not about to lose it now to paper shufflers and computers.
Gerald R. Ford
#81. President Gerald R. Ford was never one for second-guessing, but for many years after leaving office in 1977, he carried in his wallet a scrap of a 1915 Supreme Court ruling. 'A pardon,' the excerpt said, 'carries an imputation of guilt,' and acceptance of a pardon is 'a confession of it.'
Scott Shane
#82. 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
#83. I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government, but civilization itself.
Gerald R. Ford
#84. Ronald Reagan was an excellent leader of our nation during challenging times at home and abroad.
Gerald R. Ford
#85. Let us remember that our national unity is a most priceless asset.
Gerald R. Ford
#86. 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
#87. Isn't that wonderful? When we drove through several of the places we lived - Grand Rapids, Washington - they all had those placards. That they stood by the street and had in their hands placards that said 'Gerald Our Ford'. That meant so much to us as we were driving into Washington.
Betty Ford
#88. 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
#89. 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
#90. 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
#91. America's leadership is essential. America's resources are vast. America's opportunities are unprecedented.
Gerald R. Ford
#92. My goal is for a cooperative world at peace, using its resources to build, not to destroy.
Gerald R. Ford
#93. Our constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws, not of men.
Gerald R. Ford
#94. 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
#95. 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
#96. I've had a lot of experience with people smarter than I am.
Gerald R. Ford
#97. 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
#98. 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
#99. I had a life-long ambition to be a professional baseball player, but nobody would sign me.
Gerald R. Ford
#100. 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
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