Jimmy Carter Quotes

Throughout my life, I've seen the difference that volunteering efforts can make in people's lives. I know the personal value of service as a local volunteer.

I want to make it clear,if there is ever a conflict [between environmental quality and economic growth], I will go for beauty, clean air, water, and landscape.

Spirit is like the wind, in that we can't see it but can see its effects, which are profound.

Governance should be designed as an equalizer. Democrats are more inclined towards working families and those who are struggling for a better life.

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.

And so I say to you and to others around the world, whether they wish us well or ill - do not underestimate us Americans. We lack neither strength nor wisdom.

I am convinced that UFOs exist because I've seen one.

You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I've never detected any conflict between God's will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.

It's not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

But I am not discouraged. I do not despair for our country. I believe tonight, as I always have, that the essential decency, compassion and common sense of the American people will prevail.

[on the Republican party] A party with a narrow vision, a party that is afraid of the future.

We've got to stop crying and start sweating, stop talking and start walking, stop cursing and start praying. The strength we need will not come from the White House, but from every house in America.

Communicating our questions, hopes, and fears in prayer makes them-even to ourselves-more open and clear.

Human identity is no longer defined by what one does but rather by what one owns.

Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.

Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.

You just have to have a simple faith.

I am not going to use the federal government's authority deliberately to circumvent the natural inclination of people to live in ethnic homogeneous neighborhoods.

The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human right violation on earth.

I'm a peanut farmer at heart, still grow peanuts on my farm in Georgia.

I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

There's no doubt that usually a president's public image is enhanced by going to war. That never did appeal to me.

The stronger the ties that bind us to God, the more likely we are to live, react, and behave in harmony with...greater joy, peace, and happiness.

Trust is very much a part of our democracy.

A fundamentalist can't bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.

I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American.

I look forward to these confrontations with the press to kind of balance up the nice and pleasant things that come to me as president.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close knit communities, and our faith in God , too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption .

We believe in separation of church and state, that there should be no unwarranted influence on the church or religion by the state, and vice versa.

I believe in the separation of church and state and would not use my authority to violate this principle in any way.

My decision to register women confirms what is already obvious throughout our society-that women are now providing all types of skills in every profession. The military should be no exception.

I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.

Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.

Jerry Falwell can go straight to hell - and I mean that in a Christian way.

I've committed adultery in my heart.

To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy.

When men in secular life, who might be religious or not, see women being treated as secondary in the eyes of God, they assume that it's OK for them to do it.

There's no way to have a peace agreement unless the mediator or negotiator looks at both sides from an equal basis.

I don't laugh at people any more when they say they've seen UFOs. I've seen one myself!

If I become President, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public, and the scientists. I am convinced that UFOs exist because I've seen one.

Under Lenin the Soviet Union was like a religious revival, under Stalin like a prison, under Khrushchev like a circus, and under Brezhnev like the U.S. Post Office.

The greatest discrimination in the world now is against poor people.

This afternoon, I've arranged for this ceremony to be illuminated by solar power.

The love of liberty is a common blood that flows in our American veins.

We cannot speak of human rights in other countries unless we are going to do our utmost to protect the rights of our own people here at home.