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Richard M. Nixon

Richard M. Nixon Quotes

37th U.S. President

Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. A Republican, he previously served as a U.S. representative and senator from California and as the 36th vice president under Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon is best known for his Cold War foreign policy, including the historic 1972 visit to China, détente with the Soviet Union, and the gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Vietnam. However, his presidency was overshadowed by the Watergate scandal, leading to his resignation—the only such case in U.S. history. His legacy remains complex, marked by significant diplomatic achievements and profound ethical failures.

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Famous Richard M. Nixon Quotes

“I have the greatest affection for them but I know they're not going to make it for 500 years. They aren't. You know it, too. The Mexicans are a different cup of tea. They have a heritage. At the present time they steal, they're dishonest, but they do have some concept of family life. They don't live like a bunch of dogs, which the Negroes do live like.”

Knows Years Different Dog Concepts Affection Stealing Bunch Cups Tea Heritage Family Life Cups Of Tea Present Time

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“Let me just say this, and I want to say this to the televison audience: I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service”

Want Years Made Mistake Audience Let Me Public Service Public Life My Mistakes

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“When the strongest nation in the world can be tied up for years in a war with no end in sight, when the richest nation in the world can't manage its own economy, when the nation with the greatest tradition of the rule of law is plagued by unprecedented lawlessness, and when the President of the United States cannot travel abroad or to any major city at home without fear of a hostile demonstration - then it's time for new leadership for the United States of America.”

“Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.”

Thinking Men Should Years Able Jobs Political Next President Can Do

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“Watergate had become the center of the media's universe, and during the remaining year of my presidency the media tried to force everything else to revolve around it.”

Years Universe Force Media Presidency Watergate

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“For years politicians have promised the Moon. I'm the first one to be able to deliver it.”

Years Firsts Able Funny Politician Moon Aviation

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“I made my mistakes, but in all of my years in public life, I have never profited, never profited from public serviceI have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life, I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I could say that in my years of public life, that I welcome this kind of examination, because people have got to know whether or not their President is a crook. Well, I am not a crook. I have earned everything I have got.”

People Thinking Knows Life Years Wells Kind Made President Justice Mistake Welcome Cents Examination Public Service Public Life My Mistakes Crooks

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“But above all, what this Congress can be remembered for is opening the way to a new American revolutiona peaceful revolution in which power was turned back to the peoplein which government at all levels was refreshed and renewed and made truly responsive. This can be a revolution as profound, as far-reaching, as exciting as that first revolution almost 200 years agoand it can mean that just 5 years from now America will enter its third century as a young nation new in spirit, with all the vigor and the freshness with which it began its first century.”

“I would rather be a one-term President and do what I believe is right than to be a two-term President at the cost of seeing America become a second-race power and to see this Nation accept the first defeat in its proud 190-year history.”

Years Firsts Believe Two America I Believe Nations President Term Race Accepting Power Seeing Proud Cost Defeat

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“So you are lean and mean and resourceful and you continue to walk on the edge of the precipice because over the years you have become fascinated by how close you can walk without losing your balance.”

Years Mean Walks Balance Losing Edges Fascinated Precipice Resourceful

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“The President wants me to argue that he is as powerful a monarch as Louis XIV, only four years at a time, and is not subject to the processes of any court in the land except the court of impeachment.”

Want Years Process President Powerful Four Land Subjects Court Arguing Four Years Want Me Monarchs Impeachment

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“We have been through, over these years, some difficult times. During the period that I have served as President of the United States, we have been through some difficult times together, and I can only say that the friendship that we have for this nation, the respect and the admiration we have for the people of this nation, their courage, their tenacity, their firmness in the face of very great odds, is one that makes us proud to stand with Israel, as we have in the past in times of trouble, and now to work with Israel in a better time, a time that we trust will be a time of peace.”

“When I spoke at the St. Lawrence Seaway ceremonies in 1969, I borrowed some words from the monument there which I had joined Queen Elizabeth in dedicating just 10 years before. That monument, as its inscription puts it, 'bears witness to the common purpose of two nations whose frontiers are the frontiers of friendship, whose ways are the ways of freedom, whose works are the works of peace'.”

Way Years Two Purpose Nations Common Bears Witness Presidential Queens Spokes Ceremony Frontiers Monument Borrowed Inscriptions Common Purpose Queen Elizabeth Two Nations

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“I have earned every cent. And in all of my years of public life I have never obstructed justice.”

Years Justice Cents Public Life

Author:Richard M. Nixon

“We still think of air as free. But clean air is not free, and neither is clean water. The price tag on pollution control is high. Through our years of past carelessness we incurred a debt to nature, and now that debt is being called.”

Thinking Years Stills Past Water Air Clean Conservative Debt Pollution Tag Carelessness Clean Water Price Tag Clean Air Pollution Control

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1970

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1970

“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.”

Years America Past Water Pay Environment Air Conservative Debt Purity Now Or Never

Book:Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1970

Source: Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard M. Nixon, 1970