Top 260 Presidents Quotes

Great presidents, and even those not so great, never complained about the hands they were dealt. Just the opposite. They assumed they were in the big chair to meet big challenges, no matter how difficult.

It is a long revisionist road up from the bottom for George W. Bush. He is ranked toward the bottom rung of presidents.

Obama does not need to worry as much as past Democratic presidents about being labeled soft on national security – not after giving the order that led to the assassination of Osama bin Laden. No, his biggest concern is being labeled tone deaf on joblessness and debt.

If presidents can’t do it to their wives, they do it to their country.

William Barr has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate four times, has served two U.S. presidents, and has proven himself to be a consummate professional who deeply respects the great responsibilities and boundaries of the office of the attorney general.

If Obama was fundamentally different from prior presidents, Trump seems to violate every tenet of what Americans have long sought as our national image.

I don’t play golf with presidents.

All presidents get frustrated with Congress.

Since 1775, when the first Continental Congress called for a national day of prayer, there have been such events called for by almost every President. I saw the figures – 34 out of 44 Presidents have called for a national day of prayer. Some of those who didn’t have died in office.

I do have to say that I think that President Obama is the greatest President in the history of all of our Presidents, and that he can do no wrong in my book. So how’s that for prejudice on the Democratic side?

Lots of men have failed as presidents, as Trump surely will, but few fail so dismally as role models. He’s a boy’s idea of a man. He’s a man’s idea of a boy.

I haven’t met a single person, Republican or Democrat, who thinks it’s just fine for members of Congress to sit on the boards of corporations we regulate, or for presidents to hide their tax returns.

One of the important things to look at is kids who aren’t cheerleaders or aren’t the student-body presidents. In ‘Daddy Day Care,’ one of the kids would only communicate in Klingon. I get that kind of a kid.

We love the ability of the people to influence the actions of decision-makers, of lawmakers and presidents to be removed from or elevated to office by the will of voters, and of the community to connect amongst diverse populations through the ballot box.

In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.

Every year since 1990, the Gallup poll has asked Americans to assess all the presidents since John F. Kennedy. And every year, Kennedy comes out on top.

I was chef to the French Presidents between ’56 and ’59, finished with de Gaulle, and during de Gaulle I remember serving Eisenhower, Nehru, Tito, Macmillan; those were the heads of state at the time. I never saw anyone. No one would ever, ever, ever come to the kitchen. You couldn’t even see them.

When in 1969 I became publisher of the ‘Washington Post’ as well as president of the company, my plate was fuller than ever. I had partly worked myself into the job but not, except for rare occasions, taken hold. I had acquired some sense of business but still relied on others more than most company presidents did.

In the last 100 years, three presidents suffered big defeats in Congress in their first term and then won reelection: Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and the most recent example, Bill Clinton.

Now, today is the day we honor, of course, the Presidents, ranging from George Washington, who couldn’t tell a lie, to George Bush, who couldn’t tell the truth, to Bill Clinton, who couldn’t tell the difference.

The American people want their presidents to articulate big ideas and leave the details to the eggheads.

Since 2000, Republican policies have suppressed Democratic voting; since 2010, Republican gerrymandering has given the Republicans a heavy systematic advantage in Congress; and the last two Republican presidents have won the White House while losing the popular vote to their opponents.

The whole issue of healthcare is very complicated. There have been seven Presidents who’ve tried to get healthcare reform passed.

Our love of Hollywood-style glamour helped elect two presidents: JFK and Reagan, who fulfilled the prophecy that a country so enamored of actors would eventually make one their president.

Futurism is another American myth: whether Kennedy, Johnson, Reagan or Obama, American presidents all come into office with a new program, and the conviction that the country is going to be better than ever.

My own view is that taping of conversations for historical purposes was a bad decision on the part of all the presidents. I don’t think Kennedy should have done it. I don’t think Johnson should have done it, and I don’t think we should have done it.

Securing freedom has been a singular commitment of American presidents and patriots in and out of government for generations. But its perpetual continuation is not guaranteed.

There’s an unspoken rule post-Cold War American Presidents have used when describing the awesome power of our nuclear arsenal; the more devastating the ability to destroy the enemy, the more restrained the language should be.

I have walked majestically with kings and queens and presidents and other heads of states.

Sure, it is apparent that presidents are looking at polls, but they are also stepping up on issues. President Clinton stepped up on tobacco. He shaped the polls on the tobacco issue.

‘The Week’ is my favourite magazine. Everyone from presidents to CEOs of companies love it, politicians, people in the massive charity business in America, in the arts and even more especially in the media.

Richard Nixon had a kind of Walter Mitty fantasy life. He was a man with a grandiose thoughts: dreams of not simply being president but maybe becoming one of the truly great presidents of American history.

Few American presidents have been unhappier or lonelier in office than Woodrow Wilson.

We’ve had erratic, weird presidents before. America’s still here.

In a rational society we would want our presidents to be teachers. In our actual society we insist they be cheerleaders.

Systems, coaches, and directors or club presidents do not win games – players do, they are the only people who can make a significant difference once that game starts.

All presidents rail against the press. It goes with the turf.

When you look at the development of the American presidency, you see that the presidents who have had the greatest impact are the ones who fit their times most successfully.

In years of interviewing presidents, prime ministers and chief executives all over the world, I can remember only a handful of times in which a leader has said: ‘I don’t know’ in answer to a question. Perhaps everyone I have ever interviewed knows everything about everything, but I doubt it.

Americans almost never elect presidents on the basis of foreign policy.

There are a lot of smart honest, progressive people who I think can be good presidents.

Success in war underpins the claims to greatness of many presidents.

Now I’m president. I get to meet a lot of other company presidents. They’re such weird people. I’m fascinated by them. I use some of them as enemy characters in our games.

America’s presidents tend to die young. Maybe it is in the nature of the men who reach such heights, or of the job once they attain it.

France has had socialist presidents on and off since the 1920s, and it remains a free country. Socialists have ruled in many South American countries without ushering in disaster.

Kings and queens are expected to have offspring to carry on the name. There are no such demands on American presidents, but there is an expectation. There is a hope.

Whenever I came up against presidents of other companies, I was always smarter, because I was from the streets.

Every White House has had its intellectuals, but very few presidents have been intellectuals themselves – Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Woodrow Wilson, the list more or less stops there.

Over the years, increasing partisanship has led many members of Congress reflexively to speak in favor of any military action launched by presidents of their own party while withholding support to presidents of the opposing party.

Many presidents have battled with Congress over their executive privilege and what it covers, but the idea that the debate is cause for impeachment is remarkably weak.

Presidents seem to fall into two positive categories: they’re one of us, or they’re heroes. Both McCain and Obama probably see themselves as potential heroes – presidents who will be looked up to, not presidents everyday people will remark are ‘just like me.’

From George Washington to George W. Bush, presidents have invoked God’s name in the performance of their official duties.

Coming of age in the 1960s, I heard the word ‘fascist’ all the time. College presidents were fascists; Vietnam War supporters were fascists. Policemen who tangled with protesters were fascists – on and on.