Richard Nixon Quotes

190 Sourced Quotes

I think the vice president should do anything the president wants him to do.

Richard Nixon
Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

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

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

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

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

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Because the public lands belong to all Americans, this 1872 Mining Act should be repealed...

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

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
Law enforcement officers should use only the minimum force necessary in dealing with disorders when they arise. A human life-the life of a student, soldier, or police officer-is a precious thing, and the taking of a life can be justified only as a necessary and last resort.

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
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