Presidential Quotes: Wisdom from the Oval Office (Page 4)

"Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"There is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"I own that I am not a friend to a very energetic government. It is always oppressive"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"I am mortified to be told that, in the United States of America, the sale of a book can become a subject of inquiry, and of criminal inquiry too"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"I abhor war and view it as the greatest scourge of mankind"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"Determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing"

Thomas Jefferson, President

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

Abraham Lincoln, President

"These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people"

Abraham Lincoln, President

"The ballot is stronger than the bullet"

Abraham Lincoln, President

"Always take hold of things by the smooth handle"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it"

Thomas Jefferson, President

"Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar"

Abraham Lincoln, President

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

Abraham Lincoln, President

"I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice"

Abraham Lincoln, President

"Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets"

Abraham Lincoln, President

"We can not play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent"

Ronald Reagan, President

"I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress"

Ronald Reagan, President

"Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure"

Ronald Reagan, President

"Trust, but verify"

Ronald Reagan, President

"Thomas Jefferson once said, 'We should never judge a president by his age, only by his works.' And ever since he told me that, I stopped worrying"

Ronald Reagan, President

"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same"

Ronald Reagan, President