“I learned that a great leader is a man who has the ability to get other people to do what they don't want to do and like it.”
“Within the first few months I discovered that being president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed.”
“A president either is constantly on top of events or, if he hesitates, events will soon be on top of him. I never felt that I could let up for a moment.”
“The president is the representative of the whole nation and he's the only lobbyist that all the one hundred and sixty million people in the country have.”
“A politician is a man who understands government and it takes a politician to run a government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for fifteen years.”
“I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.”
“We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.”
“Some of the Presidents were great and some of them weren't. I can say that, because I wasn't one of the great Presidents, but I had a good time trying to be one, I can tell you that.”
“It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences.”
“I always remember an epitaph which is in the cemetery at Tombstone, Arizona. It says: ''Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damnedest.'' I think that is the greatest epitaph a man can have.”
“The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction.”
“I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”
“When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn't for you. It's for the Presidency.”
“If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”