america The Best Richard Nixon Quotes  

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List Rules Must be a famous or well-known quote. If a quote is cut off you can hover over the text to see the full quote.

1

235 35

A man is not finished when he's defeated; he's finished when he quits. Richard Nixon

2

68 7

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another -- until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices. Richard Nixon

3

123 22

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. Richard Nixon

4

139 29

Always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them-and then you destroy yourself. Richard Nixon

5

113 22

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire. Richard Nixon

6

84 13

Defeat doesn't finish a man -- quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits. Richard Nixon

7

119 30

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together. Richard Nixon

8

87 19

No man can be fully free while his neighbor is not. To go forward at all is to go forward together. Richard Nixon

9

151 58

I am not a crook. Richard Nixon

10

88 23

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them; and then you destroy yourself. Richard Nixon

11

49 7

Yet we can maintain a free society only if we recognize that in a free society no one can win all the time. No one can have his own way all the time, and no one is right all the time. Richard Nixon

12

33 4

The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker. Richard Nixon

13

33 4

The peace we seek in the world is not the flimsy peace which is merely an interlude between wars, but a peace which can endure for generations to come. It is important that we understand both the necessity and the limitations of America's role in maintaining that peace. Unless we in America work to preserve the peace, there will be no peace. Unless we in America work to preserve freedom, there will be no freedom. Richard Nixon

14

35 5

If, when the chips are down, the worlds most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world. Richard Nixon

15

37 6

People react to fear, not love --they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true. Richard Nixon

16

38 10

The sky is no longer the limit. Richard Nixon

17

33 7

The more you stay in this kind of job, the more you realize that a public figure, a major public figure, is a lonely man. Richard Nixon

18

27 4

We are not bent on conquest or on threatening others. But we do have a nuclear umbrella that can protect others, above all the states to which we are allied or in which we have a great national interest. Richard Nixon

19

30 5

I would rather be a one-term President and do what I believe is right than to be a two-term President at the cost of seeing America become a second-race power and to see this Nation accept the first defeat in its proud 190-year history. Richard Nixon

20

49 20

Nobody is a friend of ours. Let's face it. Richard Nixon

21

35 10

I made my mistakes, but in all of my years in public life, I have never profited, never profited from public serviceI have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I have earned everything I have got. Richard Nixon

22

27 5

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

23

30 8

I played by the rules of politics as I found them. Richard Nixon

24

26 5

Life isn't meant to be easy. It's hard to take being on the top -- or on the bottom. I guess I'm something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things. Life is one crisis after another. Richard Nixon

25

24 5

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion. Richard Nixon

26

26 7

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

27

25 7

There is no such thing as a nonpolitical speech by a politician. Richard Nixon

28

28 11

This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation, because as a result of what happened in this week, the world is bigger, infinitely. Richard Nixon

29

20 5

The lesson of all history warns us that we should negotiate only when our military superiority is so convincing that we can achieve our objective at the conference table, and deny the aggressor theirs. Richard Nixon

30

21 6

The one thing sure about politics is that what goes up comes down and what goes down often comes up. Richard Nixon

31

17 4

Our idea is to create a situation in which those lands to which we have obligations or in which we have interests, if they are ready to fight a fire, should be able to count on us to furnish the hose and water. Richard Nixon

32

17 4

Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation. Richard Nixon

33

18 5

It is not enough just to be for peace. The point is, what can we do about it? Richard Nixon

34

21 9

When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal. Richard Nixon

35

13 2

There are these and other great causes that we were elected overwhelmingly to carry forward in November of 1972. And what we were elected to do, we are going to do, and let others wallow in Watergate, we are going to do our job. Richard Nixon

36

13 2

A man who has never lost himself in a cause bigger than himself has missed one of life's mountaintop experiences. Only in losing himself does he find himself. Only then does he discover all the latent strengths he never knew he had and which otherwise would have remained dormant. Richard Nixon

37

13 2

The easiest period in a crisis situation is actually the battle itself. The most difficult is the period of indecision -- whether to fight or run away. And the most dangerous period is the aftermath. It is then, with all his resources spent and his guard down, that an individual must watch out for dulled reactions and faulty judgment. Richard Nixon

38

14 3

For its part, Government will listen. We will strive to listen in new ways -- to the voices of quiet anguish, to voices that speak without words, the voices of the heart, to the injured voices, and the anxious voices, and the voices that have despaired of being heard. Richard Nixon

39

16 5

Nothing matters more to the future of this Nation than insuring that our young men and women learn to believe in themselves and believe in their dreams, and that they develop this capacitythat you develop this capacity, so that you keep it all of your lives. I believe one of Americas most priceless assets is the idealism which motivates the young people of America. My generation has invested all that it has, not only its love but its hope and faith, in yours. Richard Nixon

40

14 4

The average American is just like the child in the family. You give him some responsibility and he is going to amount to something. He is going to do something. If, on the other hand, you make him completely dependent and pamper him and cater to him too much, you are going to make him soft, spoiled and eventually a very weak individual. Richard Nixon

41

14 5

I often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics. Richard Nixon

42

15 6

Why would anyone want to be President today? The answer is not one of glory, or fame; today the burdens of the office outweigh its privileges. Its not because the Presidency offers a chance to be somebody, but because it offers a chance to do something. Richard Nixon

43

12 4

I don't think that a leader can control to any great extent his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction. Richard Nixon

44

13 5

Once one determines that he or she has a mission in life, that's it's not going to be accomplished without a great deal of pain, and that the rewards in the end may not outweigh the pain --if you recognize historically that always happens, then when it comes, you survive it. Richard Nixon

45

13 5

You think of those kids out there. I say kids. I have seen them. They are the greatest. You see these bums, you know, blowing up the campuses. Listen, the boys that are on the college campuses today are the luckiest people in the world, going to the greatest universities, and here they are burning up the books, I mean storming around about this issueI mean you name itget rid of the war; there will be another one. Out there weve got kids who are just doing their duty. I have seen them. They stand tall, and they are proud. I am sure they are scared. I was when I was there. But when it really comes down to it, they stand up and, boy, you have to talk up to those men. And they are going to do fine; weve got to stand back of them. Richard Nixon

46

11 4

When I am the candidate, I run the campaign. Richard Nixon

47

11 4

Let historians not record that when America was the most powerful nation in the world we passed on the other side of the road and allowed the last hopes for peace and freedom of millions of people to be suffocated by the forces of totalitarianism. And so tonightto you, the great silent majority of my fellow AmericansI ask for your support. Richard Nixon

48

13 6

But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American revolutiona peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the peoplein which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting as that first revolution almost 200 years agoand it can mean that just 5 years from now America will enter its third century as a young nation new in spirit, with all the vigor and the freshness with which it began its first century. Richard Nixon

49

14 7

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

50

11 5

In our own lives, let each of us asknot just what government will do for me, but what can I do for myself? Richard Nixon