Richard Nixon Quotes

A public man must never forget that he loses his usefulness when he as an individual, rather than his policy, becomes the issue.

A riot is a spontaneous outburst. A war is subject to advance planning.

Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism, idealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that.

As this long and difficult war ends, I would like to address a few special words to the American people: Your steadfastness in supporting our insistence on peace with honor has made peace with honor possible.

Don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects.

Don't try to take on a new personality; it doesn't work.

For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all of the people on this earth are truly one. One in their pride at what you have done, one in our prayers that you will return safely to earth.

Get a good night's sleep and don't bug anybody without asking me.

I gave 'em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

I knew if I continued to look around it would be difficult for me to contain my own emotions. So I turned away from the red eyes of the crowd and looked only at the red eye of the camera, talking to all the nation.

I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business.

I took a look around the office. I walked out and closed the door behind me. I knew that I would not be back there again.

I turned into the helicopter the red carpet was rolled up. The White House was behind us now.

I wish I could give you a lot of advice, based on my experience of winning political debates. But I don't have that experience. My only experience is at losing them.

I wouldn't bet the farm on it, but I'd bet the main house. I wouldn't even bet the outhouse on Mondale.

I've never canceled a subscription to a newspaper because of bad cartoons or editorials. If that were the case, I wouldn't have any newspapers or magazines to read.

If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

If we take the route of the permanent handout, the American character will itself be impoverished.

In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.

It's the responsibility of the media to look at the president with a microscope, but they go too far when they use a proctoscope.

My concern today is not with the length of a person's hair but with his conduct.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.

No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.

Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren't for the goddamned people.

President Johnson and I have a lot in common. We were both born in small towns and we're both fortunate in the fact that we think we married above ourselves.

Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much.

So you are lean and mean and resourceful and you continue to walk on the edge of the precipice because over the years you have become fascinated by how close you can walk without losing your balance.

The American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

The press is the enemy.

The student who invades an administration building, roughs up a dean, rifles the files and issues "nonnegotiable demands" may have some of his demands met by a permissive university administration. But the greater his "victory" the more he will have undermined the security of his own rights.

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

Tonight-to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans-I ask for your support.

Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

What does that candyass think I sent him over there for?

You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates.

You see these bums, you know, blowing up campuses storming around about this issue.

You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.