President's Day [Quotes]

americanchronicle ^ | February 20, 2006 | Robert Rouse

[ncountylee]

In honor of President's Day, I thought I'd let them speak for themselves.

GEORGE WASHINGTON: "If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter."

JOHN ADAMS: "There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty."

THOMAS JEFFERSON: "Liberty is to the collective body, what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society."

JAMES MADISON: "If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy."

JAMES MONROE: "Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all -- liberty!"

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS: "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."

ANDREW JACKSON: "As long as our government is administered for the good of the people, and is regulated by their will; as long as it secures to us the rights of persons and of property, liberty of conscience and of the press, it will be worth defending."

MARTIN VAN BUREN: "The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.”

WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON: "There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more dedestructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power."

JOHN TYLER: "Patronage is the sword and cannon by which war may be made on the liberty of the human race."

JAMES K. POLK: "No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure."

ZACHARY TAYLOR: "The power given by the Constitution to the Executive to interpose his veto is a high conservative power; but in my opinion it should never be exercised except in cases of clear violation of the Constitution, or manifest haste and want of due consideration by Congress."

MILLARD FILLMORE: "It is not strange... to mistake change for progress."

FRANKLIN PIERCE: "A Republic without parties is a complete anomaly. The histories of all popular governments show absurd is the idea of their attempting to exist without parties."

JAMES BUCHANAN: "I like the noise of democracy."

ABRAHAM LINCOLN: "America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

ANDREW JOHNSON: "Outside of the Constitution we have no legal authority more than private citizens, and within it we have only so much as that instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our functions and applies to all subjects."

ULYSSES S. GRANT: "There never was a time when, in my opinion, some way could not be found to prevent the drawing of the sword."

RUTHERFORD B. HAYES: "It will be the duty of the Executive, with sufficient appropriations for the purpose, to prosecute unsparingly all who have been engaged in depriving citizens of the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution."

JAMES GARFIELD: "The President is the last person in the world to know what the people really want and think."

CHESTER A. ARTHUR: "Since I came here I have learned that Chester A. Arthur is one man and the President of the United States is another."

GROVER CLEVELAND: "Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters."

BENJAMIN HARRISON: "We Americans have no commission from God to police the world."

WILLIAM MCKINLEY: "Let us ever remember that our interest is in concord, not in conflict; and that our real eminence rests in the victories of peace, not those of war."

THEODORE ROOSEVELT: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president... is morally treasonable to the American public."

WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT: "Politics makes me sick."

WOODROW WILSON: "I have long enjoyed the friendship and companionship of Republicans because I am by instinct a teacher, and I would like to teach them something."

WARREN HARDING: "I don't know much about Americanism, but it's a damn good word with which to carry an election."

CALVIN COOLIDGE: "I have never been hurt by what I have not said."

HERBERT HOOVER: "Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die."

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: "A nation that destroys it's soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people."

HARRY TRUMAN: "I've said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!"

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

JOHN F. KENNEDY: "Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind."

LYNDON BAINES JOHNSON: "Did you ever think that making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg? It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else."

RICHARD M. NIXON: "A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits."

GERALD R. FORD: "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."

JIMMY CARTER: "I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming."

RONALD WILSON REAGAN: "Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives."

GEORGE HERBERT WALKER BUSH: "I can tell you this: If I'm ever in a position to call the shots, I'm not going to rush to send somebody else's kids into a war."

BILL CLINTON: "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America."

GEORGE W. BUSH: "I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."

[So Cal Rocket]

BILL CLINTON "I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinski".

[theDentist]

Bill Clinton: "C'mon honey. No one will ever find out."

[MaDeuce]

Richard Nixon: "I like the job I have, but if I had to live my life over again, I would like to have ended up a sports writer."

[dakine]

HERBERT HOOVER: "Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die."

Yep...

[Graybeard58]

Presidents Day,or as Al gore calls it.....Monday.

[dfwgator]

Bill Clinton: "Put some ice on it."

Jimmy Carter: "Where did that waskilly wabbit go?"

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Sorry, I prefer for George W: "Today we focus on Afghanistan, but the battle is broader. Every nation has a choice to make. In this conflict, there is no neutral ground. If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have become outlaws and murderers, themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril."

Or

"The battle is now joined on many fronts. We will not waver; we will not tire; we will not falter; and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail."

[K-oneTexas]

Jimmy Carter: "I only lusted in my heart." (Playboy magazine interview)

Betcha Rosalynn had an answer.

[Killborn]

Oh, c'mon! :(

Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom -- the great achievement of our time, and the great hope of every time -- now depends on us. Our nation -- this generation -- will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.

[Killborn]

GMTA :)

[thefactor]

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavour to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. - Abraham Lincoln

looks like Abe foresaw Walmart. flame on.

[Former Farmer]

Bill Clinton will go into Roget's Thesaurus with the mantra of postmodernism:
"It depends on what the meaning of 'is' is."

[LeoWindhorse]

"What our enemies have begun, we will finish,"

George W. Bush

ps: Happy Presidents Day Mr. President