Famous quotes by Presidents

"Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude"

"The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who'll get me a book I ain't read"

"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power"

"If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it"

"I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep on doing so until the end"

"I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me"

"In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free - honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth"

"You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence"

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time"

"You have to do your own growing no matter how tall your grandfather was"

"Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other"

"Marriage is neither heaven nor hell, it is simply purgatory"

"Lets have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it"

"I will prepare and some day my chance will come"

"I never had a policy; I have just tried to do my very best each and every day"

"I like to see a man proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him"

"I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause"

"He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help"

"I walk slowly, but I never walk backward"

"I don't like that man. I must get to know him better"

"Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets"

"As our case is new, we must think and act anew"

"Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable - a most sacred right - a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world"

"Plans are nothing; planning is everything"

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence"

"Avoid popularity if you would have peace"

"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties"

"Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough"

"Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them"

"Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing"