Richard Nixon Quotes

190 Sourced Quotes

The people's right to change what does not work is one of the greatest principles in our system of government

Richard Nixon
1 in 10 chance perhaps, but save Chile! worth spending; not concerned; no involvement of embassy; $10,000,000 available, more if necessary; full-time job—best men we have; game plan; make the economy scream; 48 hours for plan of action.

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 easiest period in a crisis situation is actually the battle itself. The most difficult is the period of indecision - whether to fight or run away. And the most dangerous period is the aftermath. It is then, with all his resources spent and his guard down, that an individual must watch out for dulled reactions and faulty judgment.

Richard Nixon
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

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
Each moment in history is a fleeting time, precious and unique. But some stand out as moments of beginning, in which courses are set that shape decades or centuries.
This can be such a moment.
Forces now are converging that make possible, for the first time, the hope that many of man's deepest aspirations can at last be realized. The spiraling pace of change allows us to contemplate, within our own lifetime, advances that once would have taken centuries.
In throwing wide the horizons of space, we have discovered new horizons on earth.
For the first time, because the people of the world want peace, and the leaders of the world are afraid of war, the times are on the side of peace.

Richard Nixon
Nixon: I still think we ought to take the North Vietnamese dikes out now. Will that drown people?
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.

Richard Nixon
But, Bob, generally speaking, you can't trust the bastards. They turn on you. Am I wrong or right?

Richard Nixon
My concern today is not with the length of a person's hair but with his conduct.

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
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
It is in that spirit, the spirit of '76, that I ask you to rise and join me in a toast to Chairman Mao, to Premier Chou, to the people of our two countries, and to the hope of our children that peace and harmony can be the legacy of our generation to theirs.

Richard Nixon
Accepting the presidential nomination:
I see another child tonight. He hears a train go by. At night he dreams of faraway places where he'd like to go. It seems like an impossible dream.

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

Richard Nixon
Do you want to make a point or do you want to make a change? do you want to get something off your chest, or do you want to get something done?

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
There is no such thing as a nonpolitical speech by a politician.

Richard Nixon
For among nations - as within nations - the soundest unity is that which respects diversity, and the strongest cohesion is that which rejects coercion.

Richard Nixon
The answer to many of the domestic problems we face is not higher taxes and more spending. It is less waste, more results and greater freedom for the individual American to earn a rightful place in his own community - and for States and localities to address their own needs in their own ways, in the light of their own priorities.

Richard Nixon
We're going to [put] more of these little Negro bastards on the welfare rolls at $2,400 a family. Let people like Pat Moynihan and [special consultant] Leonard Garment and others believe in all that crap. But I don't believe in it. Work, work—throw 'em off the rolls. That's the key.

Richard Nixon
I want to tell you that I was so damn mad when that Supreme Court had to come down. First, I didn't like the decision. Unbelievable, wasn't it? You know, those clowns we got on there, I tell you, I hope I outlive the bastards.

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

Richard Nixon
And I want you to know that I have no intention whatever of ever walking away from the job that the people elected me to do for the people of the United States.

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

Richard Nixon