Richard Nixon Quotes

190 Sourced Quotes

We seek friendly relations with all nations. Any nation can be our friend without being any other nation's enemy.

Richard Nixon
Make sure you pay your taxes; otherwise you can get in a lot of trouble.

Richard Nixon
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.

Richard Nixon
People should not have to pay for pollution they do not cause.

Richard Nixon
We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called.

Richard Nixon
We will establish a new system that makes high-quality health care available to every American in a dignified manner and at a price he can afford.

Richard Nixon
We can no longer afford to consider air and water common property, free to be abused by anyone without regard to the consequences. Instead, we should begin now to treat them as scarce resources, which we are no more free to contaminate than we are free to throw garbage into our neighbor's yard.

Richard Nixon
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.

Richard Nixon
We must maintain the integrity of the White House, and that integrity must be real, not transparent. There can be no whitewash at the White House.

Richard Nixon
The Congress, the Administration and the public all share a profound commitment to the rescue of our natural environment, and the preservation of the Earth as a place both habitable by and hospitable to man.

Richard Nixon
The ultimate test of a nation's character is not how it responds to adversity in war but how it meets the challenge of peace.

Richard Nixon
As our cities and suburbs relentlessly expand, those priceless open spaces needed for recreation areas accessible to their people are swallowed up-often forever. Unless we preserve these spaces while they are still available, we will have none to preserve.

Richard Nixon
While might certainly does not make right, neither does right by itself make might.

Richard Nixon
The recent upsurge of public concern over environmental questions reflects a belated recognition that man has been too cavalier in his relations with nature. Unless we arrest the depredations that have been inflicted so carelessly on our natural systems-which exist in an intricate set of balances-we face the prospect of ecological disaster.

Richard Nixon
When information which properly belongs to the public is systematically withheld by those in power, the people soon become ignorant of their own affairs, distrustful of those who manage them, and -- eventually -- incapable of determining their own destinies.

Richard Nixon
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.

Richard Nixon
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.

Richard Nixon
Restoring nature to its natural state is a cause beyond party and beyond factions. It has become a common cause of all the people of this country. It is a cause of particular concern to young Americans, because they more than we will reap the grim consequences of our failure to act on programs which are needed now if we are to prevent disaster later.

Richard Nixon
Because there are no local or State boundaries to the problems of our environment, the Federal Government must play an active, positive role. We can and will set standards. We can and will exercise leadership.

Richard Nixon
Idealism without realism is impotent. Realism without idealism is immoral.

Richard Nixon
The great question of the seventies is, shall we surrender to our surroundings, or shall we make our peace with nature and begin to make reparations for the damage we have done to our air, to our land, and to our water?

Richard Nixon
Before we become too arrogant with the most deadly of the seven deadly sins, the sin of pride, let us remember that the two great wars of this century, wars which cost twenty million dead, were fought between Christian nations praying to the same God.

Richard Nixon
I let the American people down, and I have to carry that burden for the rest of my life. My political life is over. I will never again have an opportunity to serve in any official position. Maybe I can give a little advice from time to time.

Richard Nixon
Clean air, clean water, open spaces - these should once again be the birthright of every American.

Richard Nixon
A politician knows that his friends are not always his allies, and that his adversaries are not always his enemies.

Richard Nixon
With those who are willing to join, let us cooperate to reduce the burden of arms, to strengthen the structure of peace, to lift up the poor and the hungry.

Richard Nixon
It is essential that we take steps to prevent chemical substances from becoming environmental hazards. Unless we develop better methods to assure adequate testing of chemicals, we will be inviting the environmental crisis of the future.

Richard Nixon
My view is that one should not break up a winning combination.

Richard Nixon
Because of the realities of human nature, perfect peace is achieved in two places only: in the grave and at the typewriter.

Richard Nixon
We must strike a balance so that the protection of our irreplaceable heritage becomes as important as its use. The price of economic growth need not and will not be deterioration in the quality of our lives and our surroundings.

Richard Nixon