110+ William Howard Taft Quotes (Leadership, Diplomacy And Progress)

William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States from 1909 to 1913. He was the only person to have served as both President and Chief Justice of the United States. After leaving the White House, Taft served as a professor at Yale Law School and later as the tenth Chief Justice of the United States.

Top 10 William Howard Taft Quotes

1. The true Mason takes full responsibility for the condition of his character and ever strives for its perfection.
2. The true Mason always carries his working tools everywhere.
3. Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.
4. Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.
5. The precepts of the Gospel were universally the obligations of Masonry.
6. We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.
7. The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much.
8. The true Mason never hesitates to use the working tools to correct personal flaws.
9. We can't have a decent government unless those in power exercise self restraint.
10. Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.

William Howard Taft Short Quotes

• The world is not going to be saved by legislation.
• The City that knows how.
• Repeat mantra: Donuts are not vitamins, donuts are not.
• We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.
• The true Mason ever strives to cultivate Masonry in his/her life to the fullest degree possible.
• As the Republican platforms says, the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country.
• Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.
• A system in which we may have an enforced rest from legislation for two years is not bad.
• The true Mason is the Tiler of the Temple of the Heart.
• We, as Unitarians, may feel that the world is coming our way.

William Howard Taft Famous Quotes And Sayings

The secret of Masonry, like the secret of life, can be known only by those who seek it, serve it, live it. It cannot be uttered; it can only be felt and acted. It is, in fact, an open secret, and each man knows it according to his quest and capacity. Like all things worth knowing, no one can know it for another and no man can know it alone. — William Howard Taft

The real secrets of Masonry are never told, not even from mouth to ear. For the real secret of Masonry is spoken to your heart and from it to the heart of your brother. Never the language made for tongue may speak it, it is uttered only in the eye in those manifestations of that love which a man has for his friend, which passeth all other loves. — William Howard Taft

The prosperity of Masonry as a means of strengthening our religion and propagating true brotherly love, is one of the dearest wishes of my heart, which, I trust, will be gratified by the help of the Grand Architect of the Universe. — William Howard Taft

There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach - it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end. — William Howard Taft

I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe. — William Howard Taft

The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power in the Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined residuum of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest. — William Howard Taft

The Society or Fraternity of Freemasons is more in the nature of a system of Philosophy or of moral and social virtues taught by symbols, allegories, and lectures based upon fundamental truths, the observance of which tends to promote stability of character, conservatism, morality and good citizenship. — William Howard Taft

The man with the average mentality, but with control, with a definite goal, and a clear conception of how it can be gained, and above all, with the power of application and labor, wins in the end. — William Howard Taft

Anyone who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy weight of responsibility. If not, he has no conception of the powers and duties of the office. — William Howard Taft

The underlying principle of Masonry is the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. In this war we are engaging in upholding these principles and our enemies are attacking them. — William Howard Taft

The Masonic system represents a stupendous and beautiful fabric, founded on universal purity, to rule and direct our passions, to have faith and love in God, and charity toward man. — William Howard Taft

My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States. — William Howard Taft

I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God. — William Howard Taft

We passed the Children's Bureau bill calculated to prevent children from being employed too early in factories. — William Howard Taft

We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement. — William Howard Taft

I think I might as well give up being a candidate. There are so many people in the country who don't like me. — William Howard Taft

Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority. — William Howard Taft

The judiciary has fallen to a very low state in this country. I think your part of the country has suffered especially. The federal judges of the South are a disgrace to any country, and I'll be damned if I put any man on the bench of whose character and ability there is the least doubt. — William Howard Taft

Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race. — William Howard Taft

The Masonic Fraternity is one of the most helpful mediating and conserving organizations among men, and I have never wavered from that childhood impression, but it has stood steadfastly with me through the busy, vast hurrying years. — William Howard Taft

I sincerely hope that the incoming Congress will be alive, as it should be, to the importance of our foreign trade and of encouraging it in every way feasible. The possibility of increasing this trade in the Orient, in the Philippines, and in South America is known to everyone who has given the matter attention. — William Howard Taft

Golf in the interest of good health and good manners. It promotes self-restraint and affords a chance to play the man and act the gentleman. — William Howard Taft

I do not think that there is any doubt about where I stand in respect to boycotts. If there is, I will just state what I think about them. They are illegal and ought to be suppressed. I would never countenance that which recognizes their legality. — William Howard Taft

Masonry aims at the promotion of morality and higher living by the cultivation of the social side of man, the rousing in him of the instincts of charity and love of his kind. It rests surely on the foundation of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God. — William Howard Taft

The true Mason is ever vigilant for subtle traces of character and personality flaws which daily experience brings out. — William Howard Taft

I am afraid I am a constant disappointment to my party. The fact of the matter is, the longer I am President the less of a party man I seem to become. — William Howard Taft

The true Mason's level of discernment increases with every use of the working tools, because the true Mason is ever working on him/her self. — William Howard Taft

Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity. — William Howard Taft

I think his greatest fault is his failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done. This is a great weakness in any man. — William Howard Taft

I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade with each becomes more valuable to the other. — William Howard Taft

The secrecy of Masonry is an honorable secrecy; any good man may ask for her secrets; those who are worthy will receive them. To give them to those who do not seek, or who are not worthy, would but impoverish the Fraternity and enrich not those who received them. — William Howard Taft

The policy of dollar diplomacy is one that appeals alike to idealistic humanitarian sentiments, to dictates of sound policy, and strategy, and to legitimate commercial aims. — William Howard Taft

If this humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain. — William Howard Taft

The intoxication of power rapidly sobers off in the knowledge of its restrictions and under the prompt reminder of an ever-present and not always considerate press, as well as the kindly suggestions that not infrequently come from Congress. — William Howard Taft

In the public interest, therefore, it is better that we lose the services of the exceptions who are good Judges after they are seventy and avoid the presence on the Bench of men who are not able to keep up with the work, or to perform it satisfactorily. — William Howard Taft

I know how irritating it is to have somebody else lay down rules for your moral uplift, but you've got to stand a great deal in order to make progress. — William Howard Taft

One of the reforms to be carried out during the incoming administration is a change in our monetary and banking laws, so as to secure greater elasticity in the forms of currency available for trade and to prevent the limitations of law from operating to increase the embarrassment of a financial panic. — William Howard Taft

Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution . . — William Howard Taft

Action for which I become responsible, or for which my administration becomes responsible, shall be within the law. — William Howard Taft

I do not know much about politics, but I am trying to do the best I can with this administration until the time shall come for me to turn it over to somebody else. — William Howard Taft

The diplomacy of the present administration has sought to respond to the modern idea of commercial intercourse. This policy has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets. — William Howard Taft

I would like to have an ample fund to spread the light of Republicanism, but I am willing to undergo the disadvantage to make certain that in the future we shall reduce the power of money in politics for unworthy purposes. — William Howard Taft

The game of baseball is a clean, straight game, and it summons to its presence everybody who enjoys clean, straight athletics. It furnishes amusement to the thousands and thousands. — William Howard Taft

There is no legislation--I care not what it is--tariff, railroads, corporations, or of a general political character, that all equals in importance the putting of our banking and currency system on the sound basis proposed in the National Monetary Commission plan. — William Howard Taft

No, the only things which do not bother me are the elements. I can overcome them without a fight. All one has to do to get the best of the elements is to stand pat and one will win. — William Howard Taft

The true Mason does not hold or teach the attitude that, I am a Master Mason now and thus I no longer need to be concerned with using the working tools because they were given in the earlier degrees. — William Howard Taft

I wish to reiterate all the reasons which [my predecessor] has presented in favor of the policy of maintaining a strong navy as the best conservator of our peace with other nations and the best means of securing respect for the assertion of our rights of the defense of our interests, and the exercise of our influence in international matters. — William Howard Taft

The truth is, the whole administration under Roosevelt was demoralized by the system of dealing directly with subordinates. It wasobviated in the State Department and the War Department under [Secretary of State Elihu] Root and me [Taft was the Secretary of War], because we simply ignored the interference and went on as we chose.... The subordinates gained nothing by his assumption of authority, but it was not so in the other departments. — William Howard Taft

I don't know whither we are drifting, but I do know where every real thinking patriot will stand in the end, and that's by the Constitution. — William Howard Taft

Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies. — William Howard Taft

A government is for the benefit of all the people. — William Howard Taft

There are a great many people who are in favor of conservation no matter what it means. — William Howard Taft

If they will play fair I will play fair, but if they won't then I reserve all my rights to do anything I find myself able to do. — William Howard Taft

Rules of conduct which govern men in their relations to one another are being applied in an ever-increasing degree to nations. The battlefield as a place of settlement of disputes is gradually yielding to arbitral courts of justice. — William Howard Taft

What I am anxious to do is to secure my legislation.... What I want to do is to get through that, and if I can point to a record of usefulness of that kind, I am entirely willing to quit office. — William Howard Taft

A man never knows exactly how the child of his brain will strike other people. — William Howard Taft

The scope of modern government in what it can and ought to accomplish for its people has been widened far beyond the principles laid down by the old "laissez faire" school of political rights, and the widening has met popular approval. — William Howard Taft

It is important, of course, that controversies be settled right, but there are many civil questions which arise between individuals in which it is not so important the controversy be settled one way or another as that it be settled. Of course a settlement of a controversy on a fundamentally wrong principle of law is greatly to be deplored, but there must of necessity be many rules governing the relations between members of the same society that are more important in that their establishment creates a known rule of action than that they proceed on one principle or another. Delay works always for the man with the longest purse. — William Howard Taft

One cannot always be sure of the truth of what one hears if he happens to be President of the United States. — William Howard Taft

Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that to-day is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity. — William Howard Taft

It gives me the greatest pleasure to say, as I do from the bottom of my heart, that never in the history of the country, in any crisis and under any conditions, have our Jewish fellow citizens failed to live up to the highest standards of citizenship and patriotism. — William Howard Taft

We have a government of limited power under the Constitution, and we have got to work out our problems on the basis of law. — William Howard Taft

Take away from the courts, if it could be taken away, the power to issue injunctions in labor disputes, and it would create a privileged class among the laborers and save the lawless among their number from a most needful remedy available to all men for the protection of their business interests against unlawful invasion.... The secondary boycott is an instrument of tyranny, and ought not to be made legitimate. — William Howard Taft

The cheerful loser is a sort of winner. — William Howard Taft

The Government is able to afford a suitable army and a suitable navy. It may maintain them without the slightest danger to the Republic or the cause of free institutions, and fear of additional taxation ought not to change a proper policy in this regard. — William Howard Taft

I think it is a wise course for laborers to unite to defend their interests.... I think the employer who declines to deal with organized labor and to recognize it as a proper element in the settlement of wage controversies is behind the times.... Of course, when organized labor permits itself to sympathize with violent methods or undue duress, it is not entitled to our sympathy. — William Howard Taft

I am glad to be going. This is the lonesomest pace in the world? — William Howard Taft

As a people, we have the problem of making our forests outlast this generation, or iron outlast this century, and our coal the next; not merely as a matter of convenience or comfort, but as a matter of stern necessity. — William Howard Taft

We should have an army so organized and so officered as to be capable in time of emergency, in cooperation with the National Militia, and under the provision of a proper national volunteer law, rapidly to expand into a force sufficient to resist all probable invasion from abroad and to furnish a respectable expeditionary force if necessary in the maintenance of our traditional American policy which bears the name of President Monroe. — William Howard Taft

That all may be so, but when I begin to exercise that power I am not conscious of the power, but only of the limitations imposed on me. — William Howard Taft

Well, I have one consolation. No candidate was ever elected ex-president by such a large majority! — William Howard Taft

He [Roosevelt] has made some speeches that indicate that he is going quite beyond anything that he advocated when he was in the White House, and has proposed a program which is absolutely impossible to carry out except by a revision of the Constitution. — William Howard Taft

There is no "but" in it. The way to be an administration Senator is to vote with the Administration. — William Howard Taft

There is only one thing I wast to say about Ohio that has a political tinge, and that is that I think a mistake has been made of recent years in Ohio in failing to continue as our representatives the same people term after term. I do not need to tell a Washington audience, among whom there are certainly some who have been interested in legislation, that length of service in the House and in the Senate is what gives influence. — William Howard Taft

We shall have to begin all over again. [Taft hoped that] the Senators might change their minds, or that the people might change the Senate; instead of which they changed me. — William Howard Taft

Politics makes me sick. — William Howard Taft

No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people. — William Howard Taft

The admission of Oriental immigrants who cannot be amalgamated with our people has been made the subject either of prohibitory clauses in our treaties and statutes or of strict administrative regulations secured by diplomatic negotiations. I sincerely hope that we may continue to minimize the evils likely to arise from such immigration without unnecessary friction and by mutual concessions between self-respecting governments. — William Howard Taft

We are all dependent upon the investment of capital. — William Howard Taft

I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town. — William Howard Taft

Don't worry over what the newspapers say. I don't. Why should anyone else? I told the truth to the newspaper correspondents - but when you tell the truth to them they are at sea. — William Howard Taft

The truth is that in my present life I don't remember that I ever was president. — William Howard Taft

Too many people don't care what happens so long as it doesn't happen to them. — William Howard Taft

Unless education promotes character making, unless it helps men to be more moral, more just to their fellows, more law abiding, more discriminatingly patriotic and public spirited, it is not worth the trouble taken to furnish it. — William Howard Taft

Politics, when I am in it, it makes me sick. — William Howard Taft

I don't know the man I admire more than [Charles Evans] Hughes. If ever I have the chance I shall offer him the Chief Justiceship. — William Howard Taft

The development of the doctrine of international arbitration, considered from the standpoint of its ultimate benefits to the human race, is the most vital movement of modern times. In its relation to the well-being of the men and women of this and ensuing generations, it exceeds in importance the proper solution of various economic problems which are constant themes of legislative discussion and enactment. — William Howard Taft

The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make the corn to grow. He cannot make business good, although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way — William Howard Taft

People run away from the name subsidy. It is a subsidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that the trade of the whole country will be benefitted thereby, and the men running the ships will of course make a reasonable profit.... Unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective. — William Howard Taft

I do not allow myself to be moved by anything except the law. If there has been a mistake in the law, or if I think there has beenperjury or injustice, I will weigh the petition most carefully, but I do not permit myself to be moved by more harrowing details, and I try to treat each case as if I was reviewing it or hearing it for the first time from the bench. — William Howard Taft

Life Lessons by William Howard Taft

1. William Howard Taft taught the importance of dedication and hard work, as he was the only person to have served both as President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
2. He also taught the value of humility and compromise, as he was known for his willingness to work with both sides of the political aisle.
3. Finally, Taft showed the importance of staying true to one's values and beliefs, as he was a lifelong advocate for civil service reform.