Richard M. Nixon Quotes

You've got to learn to survive a defeat. That's when you develop character.

Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.

Don't get the impression that you arouse my anger.

You see, one can only be angry with those he respects.

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.

Remember, 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.

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

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

Castro couldn't even go to the bathroom unless the Soviet Union put the nickel in the toilet.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.

People react to fear, not love; they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.

I wish I could give you a lot of advice, based on my experience of winning political debates. But I don't have that experience. My only experience is at losing them.

I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.

In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.

Well, I screwed it up real good, didn't I?

Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government.

If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

What was Watergate? A little bugging!

I don't think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny.

Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

What we do with this peace-whether we preserve it and defend it, or whether we lose it and let it slip away-will be the measure of our worthiness of the spirit and sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands who gave their lives in two World Wars, Korea, and in Vietnam.

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

[Peter] Drucker says that modern government can do only two things well: wage war and inflate the currency. Its the aim of my administration to prove Mr Drucker wrong.

The important thing is that we maintain plausible deniability.

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.

I refuse to make a decision that somebody else can make.

The first rule of leadership is to save yourself for the big decision. Don't allow your mind to become cluttered.

I knew if I continued to look around it would be difficult for me to contain my own emotions. So I turned away from the red eyes of the crowd and looked only at the red eye of the camera, talking to all the nation.

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.

When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal.

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.

I had never expected that the China initiative would come to fruition in the form of a Ping-Pong team.

Anybody who wants to be an ambassador, wants to pay at least $250,000.

Being trustworthy is something you are, something you stand for and a core value you live by. It isn't something you can train for nor is it something you can manipulate. You either have those values or you don't.

Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation.

The time has come for us to draw the line.

The time has come for the responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer.

It's a piece of cake until you get to the top.

You find you can't stop playing the game the way you've always played it.

In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations.

In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.

The only time in the history of the world that we have had any extended periods of peace is when there has been a balance of power. It is when one nation becomes infinitely more powerful in relation to its potential competitors that the danger of war arises.

Maybe New York shouldn't survive. Maybe it should go through a cycle of destruction.

We shall continue, in this era of negotiation, to work for the limitation of nuclear arms and to reduce the danger of confrontation between the great powers.

My telephone calls and meetings and decisions were now parts of a prescribed ritual aimed at making peace with the past; his calls, his meetings and his decisions were already the ones that would shape America's future." (On transfer of power to Gerald R Ford)

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

A president can ask for reconciliation in the racial conflict that divides Americans. But reconciliation comes only from the hearts of people.

[The public lands represent] in a sense, the breathing space of the nation.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

I've never canceled a subscription to a newspaper because of bad cartoons or editorials. If that were the case, I wouldn't have any newspapers or magazines to read.

We must never forget that if the war in Vietnam is lost .

.. the right of free speech will be extinguished throughout the world.

I have impeached myself by resigning.

Let us build bridges, my friends, build bridges to human dignity across that gulf that separates black America from white America.

A public man must never forget that he loses his usefulness when he as an individual, rather than his policy, becomes the issue.

Never be too proud to go onto your knees before God.