Jimmy Carter Quotes

The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.

What are the things that you can't see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love...They're the guiding lights of a life.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.

All I want is the same thing you want. To have a nation with a government that is as good and honest and decent and competent and compassionate and as filled with love as are the American people.

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.

The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.

America has no functioning democracy at this moment.

If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.

One of the most serious problems that our country has inherited an unwillingness to talk to anyone who disagrees with us or who won't accept, before a discussion, all the premises that we demand.

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life.

I thought a lot about our Nation and what I should do as President. And Sunday night before last, I made a speech about two problems of our countryenergy and malaise.

We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes - and we must.

Two problems of our country - energy and malaise.

I've never won an argument with my wife; and the only time I thought I had I found out the argument wasn't over yet.

I'd like to be remembered as someone who was a champion of peace and human rights.

Every act of energy conservation... is more than just common sense: I tell you it is an act of patriotism.

When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.

Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of ... permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.

If you're totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day, the benefits of globalization never come to you.

The preeminent obstacle to peace is Israel's colonization of Palestine.

We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.

Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.

For the first time in the history of our country the majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years.

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it's so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.

The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.

We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.

Wherever life takes us, there are always moments of wonder.

We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.

I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming.

Always tell the truth, and take an interest in serving the people around you as much as possible.

Many of the most highly publicized events of my presidency are not nearly as memorable or significant in my life as fishing with my daddy.

Go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.

God always answers prayers. Sometimes it's 'yes.' Sometimes the answer is 'no.' Sometimes it's 'you gotta be kidding.

We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don't make us weak. They're the source of our strength.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.

I can get up at 8am and be rested... or I can get up at 5am and be President.

Life is just too short to go quail hunting with the wrong people.

Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring.

In the final analysis, true justice is not a matter of courts and law books, but of a commitment in each of us to liberty and mutual respect.

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.

You have given me a great responsibility: to stay close to you, to be worthy of you and to exemplify what you are.

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.

Faith implies a continuing search, not necessarily a final answer.