Richard Nixon Quotes

190 Sourced Quotes

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

Richard Nixon
What kind of nation we will be, what kind of world we will live in, whether we shape the future in the image of our hopes, is ours to determine by our actions and our choices.
The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker. This honor now beckons America—the chance to help lead the world at last out of the valley of turmoil, and onto that high ground of peace that man has dreamed of since the dawn of civilization.
If we succeed, generations to come will say of us now living that we mastered our moment, that we helped make the world safe for mankind.
This is our summons to greatness.

Richard Nixon
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
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
The greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes when you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes; because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. 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.

Richard Nixon
To a crisis of the spirit, we need an answer of the spirit.
To find that answer, we need only look within ourselves.
When we listen to the better angels of our nature, we find that they celebrate the simple things, the basic things--such as goodness, decency, love, kindness.
Greatness comes in simple trappings.

Richard Nixon
The peace we seek to win is not victory over any other people, but the peace that comes "with healing in its wings;" with compassion for those who have suffered; with understanding for those who have opposed us; with the opportunity for all the peoples of this Earth to choose their own destiny.

Richard Nixon
I never say something I cannot do. And I always will do more than I can say.

Richard Nixon
The Soviet Union began by banishing God. The United States began as a community of people who wanted to worship God as they chose... Man does not live by bread alone. Those in the United States whose desire to create a strictly secular society is as strong as Lenin's was should study this Cold War lesson closely. Communism was defeated by an alliance spearheaded by 'one nation under God.'

Richard Nixon
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.

Richard Nixon
Because the public lands belong to all Americans, this 1872 Mining Act should be repealed...

Richard Nixon
I have a theory, too, that the best and only answer to a smear or to an honest misunderstanding of the facts is to tell the truth

Richard Nixon
The successful leader does not talk down to people. He lifts them up.

Richard Nixon
This country needs good farmers, good businessmen, good plumbers, good carpenters.

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

Richard Nixon
I'm not for women, frankly, in any job. I don't want any of them around. Thank God we don't have any in the Cabinet.

Richard Nixon
Honesty may not be the best policy, but it is worth trying once in a while.

Richard Nixon
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.

Richard Nixon
We are not spending the Federal Government's money, we are spending the taxpayer's money, and it must be spent n a way which guarantees his money's worth and yields the fullest possible benefit to the people being helped.

Richard Nixon
Foreign aid is the most unpopular damn thing in the world. It is a loser politically.

Richard Nixon
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
This certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. For every American this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world I am sure they, too, join with Americans in recognizing what a feat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth. For one priceless moment, in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one.

Richard Nixon
Nixon: 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.
Kissinger: I'm concerned about the civilians because I don't want the world to be mobilized against you as a butcher.

Richard Nixon
The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

Richard Nixon
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
Being controversial in politics is inevitable. If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything. In the world today, there are not many good choices—only choices between the half-good and the less half-good.

Richard Nixon
In our own lives, let each of us ask—not just what government will do for me, but what can I do for myself?

Richard Nixon
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.
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—so that despite profound differences between systems of government, the people of the world can be friends.

Richard Nixon
The memory of that scene for me is like a frame of film forever frozen at that moment: the red carpet, the green lawn, the white house, the leaden sky. The new president and his first lady.

Richard Nixon
Several commentators have reflected on the fact that this may be one of the great political victories of all time. In terms of votes that may be true, but in terms of what a victory really is, a huge landslide margin means nothing at all unless it is a victory for America. It will be a victory for America only if, in these next four years, we, all of us, can work together to achieve our common great goals of peace at home and peace for all nations in the world, and for that new progress and prosperity which all Americans deserve.

Richard Nixon