85 Executive Orders Quotes

Following is our list of executive orders quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about executive power.

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Famous Executive Orders Quotes

Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool. - Paul Begala

Stroke of the pen. Law of the land. Kinda cool. — Paul Begala

The executive branch of this government never has, nor will suffer, while I preside, any improper conduct of its officers to escape with impunity. — George Washington

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war. — James Madison

The best executive is one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it. — Theodore Roosevelt

I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States — George W. Bush

The President seems to extend executive privilege way out past the atmosphere. What he says is executive privilege is nothing but executive poppycock. — Sam Ervin

In the discharge of duties my guide will be the Constitution, which I this day swear to preserve, protect, and defend. — Zachary Taylor

Many agencies write their own regulations, use in-house courts with administrative law judges against individuals, then dole out punishments that ruin their lives. — Vivek Ramaswamy

One of the many ways the administrative state is unconstitutional: it destroys separation of powers. — Vivek Ramaswamy

When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal. — Richard M. Nixon

The President is the CEO of this business that we call America. — Bill Ackman

The president can't change the country on his own. But what can he do? He can give an example. — Volodymyr Zelenskyy

In the scheme of our national government, the presidency is preeminently the people's office. — Grover Cleveland

Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency. — Barack Obama

Decisions! And a general, a commander in chief who has not got the quality of decision, then he is no good. — Bernard Law Montgomery

Short Executive Orders Quotes

  • The government has the right to change laws and rules and regulations. — Jamie Dimon
  • Headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime ministers have never yet been invested. — Winston Churchill
  • I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law — Barack Obama
  • The supreme function of statesmanship is to provide against preventable evils. — Enoch Powell
  • All bad precedents begin as justifiable measures. — Julius Caesar

Executive Orders Image Quotes

Executive orders quote You must be willing to leave the life that you planned in order to find the one waiting for you.
You must be willing to leave the life that you planned in order to find the one waiting for you.

Executive Branch Quotes

. . . [The Judicial Branch] may truly be said to have neither FORCE nor WILL, but merely judgment; and must ultimately depend upon the aid of the executive arm even for the efficacy of its judgments. — Alexander Hamilton

I believe Watergate shows that the system did work. Particularly the Judiciary and the Congress, and ultimately an independent prosecutor working in the Executive Branch. — Bob Woodward

In the executive branch, winning by a whisker is as good as winning in a landslide, but not so in the Senate. — Lincoln Chafee

Executive orders quote You have to go whole heartedly in anything in order to achieve anything worth having.
You have to go whole heartedly in anything in order to achieve anything worth having.

[T]he opinion which gives to the judges the right to decide what laws are constitutional and what not, not only for themselves, in their, own sphere of action, but for the Legislature and Executive also in their spheres, would make the Judiciary a despotic branch. — Thomas Jefferson

A judiciary independent of a king or executive alone, is a good thing; but independence of the will of the nation is a solecism, at least in a republican government. — Thomas Jefferson

So that the executive and legislative branches of the national government depend upon, and emanate from the states. Every where the state sovereignties are represented; and the national sovereignty, as such, has no representation. — Joseph Story

Executive orders quote I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.
I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it.

The advance planning and sense stimuli employed to capture a $10 million cigarette or soap market are nothing compared to the brainwashing and propaganda blitzes used to ensure control of the largest cash market in the world: the Executive Branch of the United States Government. — Phyllis Schlafly

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. — Richard M. Nixon

I am mindful of the difference between the executive branch and the legislative branch. I assured all four of these leaders that I know the difference, and that difference is they pass the laws and I execute them. — George W. Bush

For those who believe executive branch officials will voluntarily interpret their surveillance authorities with restraint, I believe it is more likely that I will achieve my life-long dream of playing in the NBA. — Ron Wyden

Executive Power Quotes

Democracy is necessarily despotism, as it establishes an executive power contrary to the general will; all being able to decide against one whose opinion may differ, the will of all is therefore not that of all: which is contradictory and opposite to liberty. — Immanuel Kant

Knowledge isn't power; it's potential power. Execution trumps knowledge any day of the week. — Tony Robbins

When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. — Montesquieu

Executive orders quote You have to fight through the bad days in order to earn the best days.
You have to fight through the bad days in order to earn the best days.

When the legislative and executive powers are united in the same person, or in the same body of magistrates, there can be no liberty; because apprehensions may arise, lest the same monarch or senate should enact tyrannical laws, to execute them in a tyrannical manner. — Baron de Montesquieu

Such as it is, the press has become the greatest power within the Western World, more powerful than the legislature, the executive and judiciary. One would like to ask; by whom has it been elected and to whom is it responsible? — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

It's a horrible idea that God, this paragon of wisdom and knowledge, power, couldn't think of a better way to forgive us our sins than to come down to Earth in his alter ego as his son and have himself hideously tortured and executed so that he could forgive himself. — Richard Dawkins

Executive orders quote Average people have great ideas. Legends have great execution.
Average people have great ideas. Legends have great execution.

Lions don't have to roar. There is power in silence, confidence, and persistence. Those who work don't talk, and those who talk don't work. Handle your business. Measure your efforts by results. Focus your time, energy, and activity on mastering and executing a plan. — Les Brown

A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude. — Aldous Huxley

The contest for ages has been to rescue liberty from the grasp of executive power. — Daniel Webster

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills? — Kahlil Gibran

People Writing About Executive Orders

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Vivek Ramaswamy

Vivek Ramaswamy
quotes on education, leadership and government

53 1
Read quotes by Barack Obama

Barack Obama
quotes on life, leadership and success

2872 19157
Read quotes by Paul Begala

Paul Begala
quotes on leadership, love and life

49 303
Read quotes by George Washington

George Washington
quotes on freedom, leadership and life

649 8310
Read quotes by James Madison

James Madison
quotes on constitution, government and democracy

509 5798
Read quotes by Theodore Roosevelt

Theodore Roosevelt
quotes on leadership, imperialism and nature

752 11364

More Executive Orders Quotes

One of the common traits of outstanding performers-coaches, athletes, managers, sales representatives, executives, and others who face a daily up/down, win/lose accounting system-is that a rejection, that is, defeat, is quickly forgotten, replaced eagerly by pursuit of a new order, client, or opponent. — Bill Walsh

I have no idea why she quieted down on the subject. Maybe she was told to. I can imagine that it wasn't a very popular position in the Administration, with her own husband having ordered by executive order the internment. Maybe she was just told: "Look, we're in a war now. Turn off your social conscience." — William A. Rusher

Executive orders quote We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into re
We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self-discipline and effort.

Donald Trump also will repeal all these executive amnesty orders that President Obama has put into place. — Kellyanne Conway

Hitler had a police state of the first order. And those who showed any sign of being weak-kneed faced prison or often summary execution. That prevented a lot of people who knew that the war was not going to turn out well for Germany from giving up. — Rick Atkinson

In the military, as in any organization, giving the order might be the easiest part. Execution is the real game. — Russel Honore

I've got a pen, and I've got a phone, and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive action. I've got a pen to talk executive actions where congress won't. Where congress isn't acting, I'll act on my own. I have got a pen and I got a phone. And that is all I need. — Barack Obama

The right response when, in the army, you are given an unlawful order, is to refuse that order. The right response of a chief executive in this state and in this nation, when faced with an order by a court that he conscientiously believes violates the constitution he is sworn to respect, is to refuse their order! — Alan Keyes

It is the duty of every good officer to obey any orders given him by his commander-in-chief. — Nathan Hale

We're [with Donald Trump] working from Day 1, which will be [Monday, January 23 2017], the first full business day of the administration, to begin to roll back the unconstitutional executive orders and an avalanche of regulations that have been stifling growth and jobs in Indiana and across the economy. — Mike Pence

When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome. — William James

Butler is branded a felon, an outlaw, an enemy of Mankind, and so ordered that in the event of his capture, the officer in command of the capturing force do cause him to be immediately executed by hanging. — Jefferson Davis

In lieu of those checks and balances central to our legal system, non-citizens face an executive that is now investigator, prosecutor, judge, jury and jailer or executioner. In an Orwellian twist, Bush's order calls this Soviet-style abomination 'a full and fair trial.' — William Safire

I will cancel every illegal Obamacare executive order. I will cancel all federal funding to sanctuary cities. Out. — Donald Trump

No theory of my own will ever stand in the way of my executing, in good faith, any order I may receive from those in authority over me. — Ulysses S. Grant

I just released an op-ed in the "Washington Post" that talks about providing an I.D. so that everyone can have an I.D., primarily, the social security card, a picture would be put on that card, and a president can certainly by executive order make this happen so that people will not need a special I.D. They`ll have one to vote. — Al Sharpton

I don't think we've ever had a president who has more disdain for Washington than Barack Obama does, and he does things with executive orders or rules that you don't even see. — Rick Perry

There is one way, only one way to solve it, and that is through legislation. It cannot be through an unconstitutional executive order that violates the Constitution. That is, it doesn't matter here what you think about immigration: here you cannot violate the nation's Constitution, period. — Marco Rubio

After a migratory crisis on the border with minors coming over that you're seeing start up again now, after all these executive orders the President has issued. More than ever we need to prove to people that illegal immigration is under control. — Marco Rubio

If in order to avoid further Communist expansion in Asia and particularly in Indo-China, if in order to avoid it we must take the risk by putting American boys in, I believe that the executive branch of the government has to take the politically unpopular position of facing up to it and doing it, and I personally would support such a decision. — Richard M. Nixon

When contemplating college liberals, you really regret once again that John Walker is not getting the death penalty.We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors. — Ann Coulter

We need to execute people like (John Walker Lindh) in order to physically intimidate liberals. — Ann Coulter

On August 28, 1933, Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6260, outlawing the constitutional right of U.S. citizens to own gold. — Michael Maloney

It is absolutely necessary... for me to have persons that can think for me, as well as execute orders. — George Washington

Let me tell you about the travel ban. We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban. But we had a bad court. Got a bad decision. We had a court that's been overturned. Again, may be wrong, but I think it's 80 percent of the time, a lot. We're going to keep going with that decision. We're going to put in a new executive order. — Donald Trump

Executives will talk about the importance of passion, but what they really mean is finding somebody who will work nights and weekends on their assigned task but predictably and reliably follow orders and just work harder. — John Hagel

To be disciplined does not mean being silent, abstaining, or doing only what one thinks one may undertake without risk; it is not the art of eluding responsibility; it means acting in compliance with orders received, and therefore finding in one's own mind, by effort and reflection, the possibility to carry out such orders. It also means finding in one's own will the energy to face the risks involved in execution. — Ferdinand Foch

To execute laws is a royal office; to execute orders is not to be a king. However, a political executive magistracy, though merely such, is a great trust. — Edmund Burke

I've got a pen and I've got a phone - and I can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward. — Barack Obama

What we're going to do with cyber-attacks - and we have already actually started - we started well before the executive order actually was issued - is working with the private sector, determine how best to share information, because, you know, we can't help until we know that there has actually been an attempted intrusion or attack. Information-sharing piece is very important. — Janet Napolitano

Last year I was the favorite going into the world champs in Beijing, but I felt like I had to do something phenomenal in order to win. Instead of just having fun and competing, it became "I want to win so bad." But the person who wants it the most doesn't win. It's the person who executes. I still look back on that 200-meter race and say what the hell happened? I wasn't hurt, I wasn't sick, the conditions were perfect, and I ran like total crap. — Ashton Eaton

I was very, very concerned about President Obama and how much executive order and how much executive power he tried to exert. But I think I want to be, and I think congress will be, a check on any executive, Republican or Democrat, that tries to grasp too much power. And really, a lot of the fault is not only presidents trying to take too much power, it's Congress giving up too much power. — Rand Paul

My argument is focused on the fact that a relatively small percentage of the world's Muslim countries are impacted by this order. Stated differently, this executive order is a singularly ineffective - in legal parlance, it would be called under-inclusive - form of a Muslim ban. — David B. Rivkin

[John Adams] experience with the French philosophers only convinced him further of the need for a bicameral legislature representing the two principal social orders and, equally important, an independent executive. — Gordon S. Wood

The problem was, and we saw some of this in the immigration-reform issues as well, was they hadn't done sufficient homework to know that I didn't have all the capacity they thought I did in order to just execute this through the stroke of a pen. — Barack Obama

Donald Trump is gonna immediately start canceling some executive orders and repealing Obamacare. — Rush Limbaugh

I serve on the Institute of the Black World's National Commission on African-American Reparations, and we have asked the President [Barack Obama] to, by executive order, establish a commission to study reparations. He can do this without Congressional approval. While I am not optimistic, I do hope that President Obama considers this in these waning months of his Presidency. — Julianne Malveaux

[Donald Trump] can do it [build the wall] by executive order by just re-programming money within the within the Immigration Service. — Rudy Giuliani

The first thing [Donald Trump] is going to do is roll back the fiat executive orders that were unconstitutional. — Mary Matalin

Almost always, executive orders are within an authority and always within the purview of Congress to change if they want to legislatively change it. — Tim Kaine

The thing about an executive order - there has never been an executive order that a Congress couldn't say, "You know, we don't like that so we're going to do something else," if there is a majority in Congress to do something else. — Tim Kaine

It's important to use executive orders. Every president since Washington has. — Tim Kaine

My first [executive orders as a President] would be to get rid of a lot of the executive orders, especially on the border where President [Barack] Obama wants people to pour through like we're Swiss cheese. — Donald Trump

The president is supposed to execute faithfully the laws that the legislature has written. So, the executive orders that Barack Obama president is writing are without precedent. Without precedent so with he's rewriting law. It's totally illegal. — Rafael Cruz

In order to execute the idea, you need a certain material that is going to allow you to do what you're challenged to do in your imagination. You should use whatever you can and it's amazing how even if you change the medium, your work is still yours. — Michelle Stuart

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