Richard M. Nixon Quotes

There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white.

Never forget, the press is the enemy. The establishment is the enemy. The professors are the enemy. Professors are the enemy. Write that on a blackboard 100 times and never forget it.

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

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I earned everything I've got.

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.

I don't think a woman should be in any government job whatever. I mean, I really don't. The reason why I do is mainly because they are erratic and emotional.

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.

The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time - it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine.

I know you heard what you thought I said, but what I said isn't what I meant.

I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue.

I gave 'em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing.

When I retire I'm going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned.

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

No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.

You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

If we take the route of the permanent handout, the American character will itself be impoverished.

Nothing would please the Kremlin more than to have the people of this country choose a second rate president.

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.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

Listen, I don't know anything about polygraphs and I don't know how accurate they are, but I know they'll scare the hell out of people.

Capitalism works better than it sounds, while socialism sounds better than it works.

The press is the enemy.

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.

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.

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

I didn't do anything wrong and I promise to never do it again.

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.

The memory of that scene for me is like a frame of film forever frozen at that moment: the red carpet, the green lawn, the white house, the leaden sky. The new president and his first lady.

When the strongest nation in the world can be tied up for years in a war with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness, and when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration - then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.

What a strange creature man is that he fouls his own nest.

Watergate had become the center of the media's universe, and during the remaining year of my presidency the media tried to force everything else to revolve around it.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

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

President Johnson and I have a lot in common. We were both born in small towns and we're both fortunate in the fact that we think we married above ourselves.

They put the Jewish interest above America's interest and it's about goddamn time that the Jew in America realizes he's an American first and a Jew second.

The important thing is that we maintain plausible deniability.

If I were to make public these tapes, containing blunt and candid remarks on many different subjects, the confidentiality of the office of the president would always be suspect.

The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

I would not like to be a political leader in Russia. They never know when they're being taped.

Any nation that decides the only way to achieve peace is through peaceful means is a nation that will soon be a piece of another nation.

To me, the most unhappy people in the world are the people ... in Palm Beach- Going to parties every night. Playing golf every afternoon, then bridge. [They have] no purpose.

Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren't for the goddamned people.

Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much.

...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.

[T]here may be some truth in that if the Arabs have some complaints about my policy towards Israel, they have to realize that the Jews in the U. S. control the entire information and propaganda machine, the large newspapers, the motion pictures, radio and television, and the big companies, and there is a force that we have to take into consideration.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

Those who hate us only win if we hate them back

The peace we seek in the world is not the flimsy peace which is merely an interlude between wars, but a peace which can endure for generations to come. It is important that we understand both the necessity and the limitations of America's role in maintaining that peace. Unless we in America work to preserve the peace, there will be no peace. Unless we in America work to preserve freedom, there will be no freedom.

You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.