Great Throughts Treasury

"It is not too strong a statement to declare that this is the way civilizations begin to die ... None of us has the right to suppose it cannot happen here."

"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."

"I've analyzed the best I can ... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course."

"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."

"It's a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can't stop playing the game the way you've always played it."

"Just as America's role is indispensable in preserving the world's peace, so is each nation's role indispensable in preserving its own peace. Together with the rest of the world, let us resolve to move forward from the beginnings we have made. Let us continue to bring down the walls of hostility which have divided the world for too long, and to build in their place bridges of understanding "

"Just as we respect the right of each nation to determine its own future, we also recognize the responsibility of each nation to secure its own future."

"Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth - to see it as it is, and tell it like it is - to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth."

"Kissinger: About two hundred thousand people. Nixon: No, no, no, I'd rather use the nuclear bomb. Have you got that, Henry? Kissinger: That, I think, would just be too much. Nixon: The nuclear bomb, does that bother you?...I just want you to think big, Henry, for Christsakes."

"Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation."

"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."

"Let us build a structure of peace in the world in which the weak are as safe as the strong "

"My own view is that taping of conversations for historical purposes was a bad decision on the part of all the presidents. I don't think Kennedy should have done it. I don't think Johnson should have done it, and I don't think we should have done it."

"Look at the Justice Department, it's full of Jews...The lawyers in government are damn Jews."

"My strong point, if I have a strong point, is performance. I always do more than I say. I always produce more than I promise."

"My telephone calls and meetings and decisions were now parts of a prescribed ritual aimed at making peace with the past; his calls, his meetings and his decisions were already the ones that would shape America's future (On transfer of power to Gerald R Ford)."

"Millions who endure poverty and bad government can now know what they are missing. To see how the other half lives all they have to do is switch on their television sets."

"My concern today is not with the length of a person's hair but with his conduct. (On campus radicals)"

"Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible."

"The only place where you and I disagree ... is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about civilians and I don't give a damn. I don't care."

"No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now. Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much. Never have the consequences of their misunderstanding been so tragic."

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

"My strong point is not rhetoric, it isn't showmanship, it isn't big promises-those things that create the glamour and the excitement that people call charisma and warmth."

"Never be belligerent, but always be firm."

"Never give up unilaterally what could be used as a bargaining chip."

"Never let your adversary underestimate what you would do in response to a challenge."

"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."

"Never has so much military and economic and diplomatic power been used so ineffectively, and if after all of this time, and all of this sacrifice, and all of this support, there is still no end in sight, then I say the time has come for the American people to turn to new leadership not tied to the mistakes and policies of the past."

"Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out."

"Nothing would please the Kremlin more than to have the people of this country choose a second rate president."

"Now, some may ask why we don't get rid of the bases, since the Soviet Government declares today that it has only peaceful intentions. The answer is that whenever the fear and suspicions that caused us and our Allies to take measures for collective self-defense are removed, the reason for our maintaining bases will be removed. In other words, the only possible solution of this problem lies in mutual, rather than unilateral action leading toward disarmament."

"Others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win, unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself."

"One reason we found the Chinese appeared to be so agreeable to deal with was their total lack of conceit or arrogance."

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

"Now listen here: Printing top secret information... I don't care how they feel about the war. Whether they're for or against it. They can't and should not do this and attack the integrity of government and by God, I'm gonna fight that son of a bitching paper. They don't know what's gonna hit them now."

"North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that."

"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 capacity-that you develop this capacity, so that you keep it all of your lives.... I believe one of America's 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."

"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."

"Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents."

"Peace demands more, not less, from a people. Peace lacks the clarity of purpose and the cadence of war. War is scripted: peace is improvisation."

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

"Peace is a great goal, but it is not a panacea. Neither is material wealth."

"Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself."

"Reading not only enlarges and challenges the mind; it also engages and exercises the brain. Today's youth who sits mesmerized by a television screen is not going to be tomorrow's leader. Television watching is passive. Reading is active."

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

"People who like this sort of thing will find this is the sort of thing they like."

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

"Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency."

"So few of those who engage in espionage "

"Short of changing human nature, therefore, the only way to achieve a practical, livable peace in a world of competing nations is to take the profit out of war."