Richard M. Nixon Quotes

Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.

You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I'm innocent. You've got to believe I'm innocent. If you don't, take my job.

I don't give a damn about the civilians.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

The worst thing a politician can be is dull. At least I'm interesting.

I hereby resign this office of president of the United States.

People react to fear, not love; they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.

Publicly, we say one thing....Actually, we do another.

Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don't care what they say, they like it.

Look at the Justice Department, it's full of Jews...The lawyers in government are damn Jews.

I would have made a good pope.

It's a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can't stop playing the game the way you've always played it.

The more you stay in this kind of job, the more you realize that a public figure, a major public figure, is a lonely man.

Idealism without pragmatism is impotent. Pragmatism without idealism is meaningless. The key to effective leadership is pragmatic idealism.

Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government.

By the time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you've blown seven hours. There are better things you can do with your time.

Solutions are not the answer.

The greatest honor history can bestow is the title of peacemaker.

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.

Well, I screwed it up real good, didn't I?

Maybe New York shouldn't survive. Maybe it should go through a cycle of destruction.

Italy hasn't had a government since Mussolini.

The 1970s must be the years when America pays its debt to the past by reclaiming the purity of its air, its waters, and our living environment. It is literally now or never.

I really believe life is simple. It's all the other people that make things complicated.

Baseball without fans is like Jayne Mansfield without a sweater. Hang on, that can be taken two ways.

The Jews are irreligious, atheistic, immoral bunch of bastards.

Clean air, clean water, open spaces - these should once again be the birthright of every American.

Extremists on the left tend to be just as critical of pragmatism as extremists on the right.

Yet we can maintain a free society only if we recognize that in a free society no one can win all the time. No one can have his own way all the time, and no one is right all the time.

There is no such thing as a nonpolitical speech by a politician.

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them back.

The successful leader does not talk down to people. He lifts them up.

But more than anything else, we have learned that legal assistance for the poor, when properly provided, is one of the most constructive ways to help them help themselves.

I learned that the people who have the cards are usually the ones who talk the least and the softest; those who are bluffing tend to talk loudly and give themselves away.

The sky is no longer the limit.

While might certainly does not make right, neither does right by itself make might.

The Cold War isn't thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn't sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.

I have impeached myself by resigning.

Castro couldn't even go to the bathroom unless the Soviet Union put the nickel in the toilet.

In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.

If you are ever going to lie, you go to jail for the lie rather than the crime. So believe me, don't ever lie.

I always remember that whatever I have done in the past or may do in the future, Duke University is responsible in one way or another.

[The public lands represent] in a sense, the breathing space of the nation.

You don't know how to lie. If you can't lie, you'll never go anywhere.

Well, I'm not a crook.

The three most difficult words to speak are, "I was wrong."

I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business.

The man of thought who will not act is ineffective; the man of action who will not think is dangerous.

The ability to be cool, confident, and decisive in crisis is not an inherited characteristic but is the direct result of how well the individual has prepared himself for the battle.