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Presidents Quotes

Browse 77 quotes about Presidents.

Presidents Quotes

“During the 1992 election I concluded as early as my first visit to New Hampshire that Bill Clinton was hateful in his behavior to women, pathological as a liar, and deeply suspect when it came to money in politics. I have never had to take any of that back, whereas if you look up what most of my profession was then writing about the beefy, unscrupulous 'New Democrat,' you will be astonished at the quantity of sheer saccharine and drool. Anyway, I kept on about it even after most Republicans had consulted the opinion polls and decided it was a losing proposition, and if you look up the transcript of the eventual Senate trial of the president—only the second impeachment hearing in American history—you will see that the last order of business is a request (voted down) by the Senate majority leader to call Carol and me as witnesses. So I can dare to say that at least I saw it through.”

PoliticsWomenMoneyHistoryUnited StatesLiesCorruptionTrialsSexismMisogynyElectionsPathologyImpeachmentNew HampshirePresidentsChauvinismBill ClintonUs Presidents1992Impeachment Of Bill ClintonUs SenateRepublican Party UsCarol BlueDemocratic Party UsNew DemocratsUs Presidential Election 1992
Book:Hitch 22: A Memoir
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“The crowd waited with bated breath as the first neurologically-enhanced lobster elected President of the United States clambered toward the podium. The lobster hovered over the microphone, clamped its claws and rubbed its antennae. A storm of neurons fired inside its ganglia, and its mandibles burbled out a rousing acceptance speech. The men whooped and hollered at the significance of the moment, while the women, relegated to years of waiting for their turn, clapped tepidly.”

MenPoetryWomenPoemGenderMisogynyPresidentsGender BiasGender RelationsLobsters
Book:Mexicans on the Moon: Speculative Poetry from a Possible Future
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“God is the message owner; prophets and pastors are messengers. It's happens on no account when the messenger becomes greater than the message owner! Let's us avoid these "human worships", confining our source of hope in prophets, kings, presidents, lawyers, etc. God deserves the greatest honour!”

GodJesusChristGreaterKingsHonorWorshipBibleJesus ChristIsraelmore AyivorLawyerProphetGreatHonourPastorBishopsAvoidGreatestLawyersPresidentsPastorsAccountMessengerBishopOwnerDeservesHuman Worship
Book:The Great Hand Book of Quotes
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“When was the last time an American president found it worth his while to write a speech on the importance of art and literature? I cannot recall. And yet at Yan’an, Mao said that art and literature were crucial to revolution. Conversely, he warned, art and literature could also be tools of domination. Art could not be separated from politics, and politics needed art in order to reach the people where they lived, through entertaining them.”

ArtLiteraturePoliticsMaoPresidents
Book:The Sympathizer
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“(The Mona Lisa), that really is the ugliest portrait I’ve seen, the only thing that supposedly makes it famous is the mystery behind it,” Katherine admitted as she remembered her trips to the Louvre and how she shook her head at the poor tourists crowding around to see a jaundiced, eyebrow-less lady that reminded her of tight-lipped Washington on the dollar bill. Surely, they could have chosen a better portrait of the First President for their currency?”

ArtHumorFunnyMoneyMysteryMasterpieceArtworkSad But TrueMona LisaPresidentsPortraitGadflyGeorge WashingtonSarcastic QuotesDa VinciUgly Art
Book:Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
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“FDR Unmasked chronicles Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s life from a physician’s perspective. It tells a harrowing story of heroic achievement by a great leader determined to impart his vision of freedom and democracy to the world while under constant siege by serious medical problems.”

FreedomLeaderHistoryReal LifeTrueBiographyPresidentsUs PresidentsHistorical BiographyHeads Of States Biography
Book:FDR Unmasked: 73 Years of Medical Cover-ups That Rewrote History
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“Barack Obama had cobbled together a mighty coalition of people young and old, Black and white. The diversity of the coalition that backed him demonstrated the future he sought, one where people of all backgrounds would come together and push our great nation forward. The power of that thought, the audacity of his imagination to dream of what a better, more inclusive country might look like, frightened many who saw their lives dependent on the continuation of a racial hierarchy.”

AmericaFearChangeDiversityInclusionAfrican AmericansBlacksPresidentsBarack Obama
Book:Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
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“President Bush, whose early affirmation of the need for the [Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture] to have a home on the National Mall was significant, and the first lady were genuinely interested and soon became invested in the success of the museum. President Bush had placed African Americans like Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice in sensitive senior positions that had been unobtainable in earlier administrations. And he genuinely hoped that his actions might address the problem of the lack of diversity within the Republican Party. I also believe, whether directly or indirectly, that the destruction that accompanied Hurricane Katrina, the high percentage of African Americans who perished as a result of the storm and the inadequate response by his administration, informed his attitudes towards the museum.”

PoliticsDiversityAfrican AmericansBlacksRace RelationsRepublicansPresidentsGeorge W BushLaura Bush
Book:A Fool's Errand: Creating the National Museum of African American History and Culture in the Age of Bush, Obama, and Trump
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“Why, per Freedom House, is democracy now "under assault and in retreat"? Why are many people in positions of power seeking to undermine public confidence in elections, the courts, the media, and--on the fundamental question of earth's future--science? Why have such dangerous splits been allowed to develop between rich and poor, urban and rural, those with a higher education and those without? Why has the United States--at least temporarily --abdicated its leadership in world affairs? And why, this far into the twenty-first century, are we once again talking about Fascism? One reason, frankly, is Donald Trump. If we think of Fascism as a wound from the past that had almost healed, putting Trump in the White House was like ripping off the bandage and picking at the scab.”

GovernmentPoliticsDemocracyInequalityFascismDonald TrumpPresidentsWorld Affairs
Book:Fascism: A Warning
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“Trump’s America is not America: not today’s or tomorrow’s, but yesterday’s. Trump’s America is brutal, perverse, regressive, insular and afraid. There is no hope in it; there is no light in it. It is a vast expanse of darkness and desolation. And that is a vision of America that most of the people in this country cannot and will not abide.”

AmericaHopeDarknessUnited StatesCitizensFuturePositivityUsaProtestNegativityUnited States Of AmericaUsDonald TrumpPresidentsPotus
Author:Charles M. Blow
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“Nakia had come across Conrad and Juanita's box of Obama family memorabilia--novelty plates, buttons, their tickets to the first inauguration--when she helped them to pack up to move back to New Jersey. A time capsule of wild hope, almost painful to look back on now. "We really thought that man was gonna be the Black Messiah or something," she said. "What a time." "Yeah, turns out he was very much not," January said. "And white people ain't been okay since. Look at them.”

HopeOptimismAfrican AmericansBlacksWhitesPresidentsBarack ObamaMemorabiliaKeepsakes
Book:The Wilderness
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“The ancient philosophers always had their doubts about democracy. Plato feared the "false and braggart words" of the demagogue, and suspected democracy might be nothing more than a staging point on the road to tyranny. Early American advocates of republican government also recognized the challenge that a corrupt leader could pose to democracy, and thought hard about creating the institutions that would resist one. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 created the electoral college as a means of ensuring that a man with what Alexander Hamilton called "talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity" could never become president of the United States.”

AmericaDemocracyTyrannyPlatoPresidentsPhilosophersDemagoguesAlexander Hamilton
Book:Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism
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“More than anything, Trump was a demagogue—a thoroughly American type, familiar to us from novels like All the King’s Men and movies like Citizen Kane. “Trump is a creature native to our own style of government and therefore much more difficult to protect ourselves against,” the Yale political theorist Bryan Garsten wrote. “He is a demagogue, a popular leader who feeds on the hatred of elites that grows naturally in democratic soil.” A demagogue can become a tyrant, but the people put him there—the people who want to be fed fantasies and lies, the people who set themselves apart from and above their compatriots. So the question isn’t who Trump was, but who we are.”

AmericaAmericansDonald TrumpPresidentsPresident TrumpDemagogues
Author:George Packer
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“So you think someone is going to shoot at me twice in one campaign cycle?" Sticking out her hand, she started counting off on her fingers. "Reagan, Johnson, Nixon, Carter. They've all had over fifty assassination attempts. Some over a hundred!" His sisters were the earth's most annoying creatures. "Those are all presidents. And they all survived the attempts." "William Goebel, gubernatorial candidate. George Wallace, gubernatorial candidate." "You're in the wrong century." "And you're underestimating the power of racial hatred," she snapped. "Bill Richardson, Deval Patrick, Bobby Jindal, David Paterson, Susana Martinez, Michelle Grisham-" "And listing all the minority governors from this century proves what?" she snapped again. "It proves that we can run for elections without ending up dead.”

GovernorsPresidentsBickeringSibling RivalryPolitical CandidatesAssassination Attempts
Book:Incense and Sensibility
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“Mr. President, I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear. It is a condition that comes from the lack of effective leadership either in the legislative branch or the executive branch of our government.”

GovernmentAmericaPoliticsFearCongressFrustrationSenatePresidents
Author:Margaret Chase Smith
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“I sincerely hope that President Barack Obama’s government will be remembered as the peak of deregulated corporate corruption and not the ongoing rise of it.”

GovernmentHopePresidentCorruptionBarackCorporateRememberedHopefulPresident ObamaHope QuotesSincerelyOngoingCorruptGovernment QuotesRiseCorporate CultureGovernment CorruptionObamaGovernment ProgramsGovernment SpendingGovernmentsGovernment AbuseCorruption QuotesCorruption PoliticsGovernment RegulationPresidentsCorporate AmericaCorporate WorldCorporate GreedBarack ObamaPeakGovernment Cover UpsGovernment PropagandaCorporate QuotesCorrupt LeadersCorruptedCorporate LifeCorrupt PoliticsCorporate EthicsPresident Of The United StatesCorporate InfluencePresidential PoliticsDeregulatedCorporate Profit
Author:Steven Magee
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“Someone once called Lincoln two-faced. 'If I am two-faced, would I wear the face that I have now?' Lincoln asked." "Abraham Lincoln wasn't much of a dancer. 'Miss Todd, I should like to dance with you in the worst way,' he told his future wife. Miss Todd later said to a friend, 'He certainly did.'" John Quincy Adams was a first-rate swimmer. Once when he was skinny-dipping in the Potomac River, a women reporter snatched his clothes and sat on them until he gave her an interview.”

HumorJournalistsPresidentsJohn Quincy Adams
Book:So You Want to Be President?
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“Throughout the human history millions have died because of the kings and the queens, because of the presidents and the prime ministers, because of the Caesars and the duces, because of all these little charlatans with big ego!”

KingsMehmet Murat Ildan QuotesQueensTurkish LiteratureTurkish QuotesTurkish WritersMehmet Murat Ildan QuotationsIldan Wise SayingsTurkish Wisdom WordsTurkish PlaywrightsTurkish QuotationsTurkish AuthorsIldan WisdomIldan WordsPrime MinisterCharlatansPresidentsKings And QueensCaesarBig EgoCharlatanQueens QuotesDuceBig EgosCaesars
Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan
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“Here is a tragicomic reality of all the regimes: People work hard to feed their thief politicians, their thief kings and thief queens or their thief presidents! And therefore the tragicomic reality of all the times is this: There can exist no thieves without the support of people!”

PeopleKingsMehmet Murat Ildan QuotesQueensRegimesThievesTurkish LiteratureTurkish QuotesTurkish WritersMehmet Murat Ildan QuotationsIldan Wise SayingsTurkish Wisdom WordsTurkish PlaywrightsTurkish QuotationsTurkish AuthorsIldan WisdomIldan WordsThiefPresidentsTragicomedyRegimeThief QuotesRegime QuotesTragicomicSupport Of People
Author:Mehmet Murat Ildan
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“For myself the delay may be compared with a reprieve; for in confidence I assure you, with the world it would obtain little credit that my movements to the chair of Government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit who is going to the place of his execution: so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for an Ocean of difficulties, without that competency of political skill, abilities and inclination which is necessary to manage the helm.”

PoliticsLeadershipElectionDelayPresidentsReprieveUnease
Author:George Washington
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“After the 2016 election, a great deal of journalism and social science was devoted to finding out whether Trump’s voters were mainly motivated by economic anxiety or racial resentment. There was evidence for both answers. Progressives, shocked by the readiness of half the country to support this hateful man, seized on racism as the single cause and set out to disprove every alternative. But this answer was far too satisfying. Racism is such an irreducible evil that it gave progressives commanding moral heights and relieved them of the burden to understand the grievances of their compatriots down in the lowlands, let alone do something about them. It put Trump voters beyond the pale.”

TrumpRacismVotingVotersElectionsDonald TrumpPresidentsPresident TrumpPresidential Elections
Author:George Packer
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“Another new and groundbreaking story in FDR Unmasked is about his highly consequential friendship with Vincent Astor, the closest with any man in his adult life. To truly understand the “real” Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the one behind his mask of deception, it is important to understand their almost brotherly relationship.”

LeaderHistoryDiseaseIllnessSecretsBiographyPresidentsUs PresidentsHistorical BiographyHeads Of States Biography
Book:FDR Unmasked: 73 Years of Medical Cover-ups That Rewrote History
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“Just as he did during the Slavery at Monticello tour, David did not mince words. "There’s a chapter in Notes on the State of Virginia,” he said to the five of us, standing in front of the east wing of Jefferson’s manor, “that has some of the most racist things you might ever read, written by anyone, anywhere, anytime, in it. So sometimes I stop and ask myself, 'If Gettysburg had gone the wrong way, would people be quoting the Declaration of Independence or Notes on the State of Virginia?' It’s the same guy writing.”

HistoryRacismAmerican HistoryAfrican AmericansBlacksPresidentsThomas JeffersonMonticelloTours
Book:How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America
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“For reasons I find hard to fathom, readers with government [Harvard?] experience follow my argument more easily that do some of those for whom it remains theoretical. (xv)”

GovernmentTrumpPresidentsTrump Resistance MovementChecks And BalancesPresidential Power
Book:Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan
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