225 Presidential Quotes – Inspiration, Wisdom and Humor from the US Presidents
Each year since 1855, the United States of America celebrates President’s Day. In honor of the Americans who have held this office, I’ve collected at least 5 quotes from each of the Presidents. You’ll find a blend of inspirational quotes, humorous quotes, and quotes relevant to the President’s time in office.
Enjoy these 225 Presidential Quotes!
George Washington (1789-1797)
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
Happiness depends more upon the internal frame of a person’s own mind, than on the externals in the world.
Require nothing unreasonable of your officers and men, but see that whatever is required be punctually complied with. Reward and punish every man according to his merit, without partiality or prejudice; hear his complaints; if well founded, redress them; if otherwise, discourage them, in order to prevent frivolous ones. Discourage vice in every shape, and impress upon the mind of every man, from the first to the lowest, the importance of the cause, and what it is they are contending for.
99% of failures come from people who make excuses.
Remember that it is the actions, and not the commission, that make the officer, and that there is more expected from him, than the title.
John Adams (1797-1801)
If conscience disapproves, the loudest applauses of the world are of little value.
Because power corrupts, society’s demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
To believe all men honest is folly. To believe none is something worse.
Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people.
Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809)
Nothing gives a person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.
Do you want to know who you are? Don’t ask. Act! Action will delineate and define you.
The wise know their weakness too well to assume infallibility; and he who knows most, knows best how little he knows.
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.
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.
James Madison (1809-1817)
I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.
Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives.
The advancement and diffusion of knowledge is the only guardian of true liberty.
A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.
James Monroe (1817-1825)
A free, virtuous, and enlightened people must know full well the great principles and causes upon which their happiness depends.
Our country may be likened to a new house. We lack many things, but we possess the most precious of all – liberty!
To impose taxes when the public exigencies require them is an obligation of the most sacred character, especially with a free people.
The right of self-defense never ceases. It is among the most sacred, and alike necessary to nations and to individuals.
In a representative republic, the education of our children must be of the utmost importance!
John Quincy Adams (1825-1829)
Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.
All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round, till not a slave shall on this earth be found.
To preserve, to improve, and to perpetuate the sources and to direct in their most effective channels the streams which contribute to the public weal is the purpose for which Government was instituted.
Andrew Jackson (1829-1837)
Every good citizen makes his country’s honor his own, and cherishes it not only as precious but as sacred. He is willing to risk his life in its defense and is conscious that he gains protection while he gives it.
Americans are not a perfect people, but we are called to a perfect mission.
You are a den of vipers. I intend to rout you out and by the Eternal God I will rout you out. If the people only understood the rank injustice of our money and banking system, there would be a revolution before morning.
I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me.
Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.
I weep for the liberty of my country when I see at this early day of its successful experiment that corruption has been imputed to many members of the House of Representatives, and the rights of the people have been bartered for promises of office.
Martin Van Buren (1837-1831)
It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn’t.
The less government interferes with private pursuits, the better for general prosperity.
I tread in the footsteps of illustrious men, whose superiors it is our happiness to believe are not found on the executive calendar of any country.
Most men are not scolded out of their opinion.
If laws acting upon private interests can not always be avoided, they should be confined within the narrowest limits, and left wherever possible to the legislatures of the States.
William Henry Harrison (1841-1841)
Understanding of men can be warped and their affections changed by operations upon their passions and prejudices.
There is nothing more corrupting, nothing more destructive of the noblest and finest feelings of our nature, than the exercise of unlimited power.
I contend that the strongest of all governments is that which is most free.
Of all the great interests which appertain to our country, that of union–cordial, confiding, fraternal union–is by far the most important, since it is the only true and sure guaranty of all others.
The chains of military despotism, once fastened upon a nation, ages might pass away before they could be shaken off.
John Tyler (1841-1845)
Wealth can only be accumulated by the earnings of industry and the savings of frugality.
I can never consent to being dictated to.
Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette – the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace.
If the tide of defamation and abuse shall turn, and my administration come to be praised, future Vice-Presidents who may succeed to the Presidency may feel some slight encouragement to pursue an independent course.
Everything dependent on human action is liable to abuse.
If we find ourselves increasing beyond example in numbers, in strength, in wealth, in knowledge, in everything which promotes human and social happiness, let us ever remember our dependence for all these on the protection and merciful dispensations of Divine Providence.
James K. Polk (1845-1849)
One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights.
Public opinion: May it always perform one of its appropriate offices, by teaching the public functionaries of the State and of the Federal Government, that neither shall assume the exercise of powers entrusted by the Constitution to the other.
There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress than I had any conception of, before I became President of the U.S.
Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.
All distinctions of birth or of rank have been abolished. All citizens, whether native or adopted, are placed upon terms of precise equality. All are entitled to equal rights and equal protection.
Zachary Taylor (1849-1850)
I have no private purpose to accomplish, no party objectives to build up, no enemies to punish-nothing to serve but my country.
A strong reputation is like a good bonfire. When you have one kindled it’s easy to keep the flame burning, even if someone comes along and tries to piss on it. But if you fall asleep and neglect it…You’ll wake up with ashes.
The Bible is the best of books, and I wish it were in the hands of every one. It is indispensable to the safety and permanence of our institutions. A free government can not exist without religion and morals, and there cannot be morals without religion. Especially should the Bible be placed in the hands of the young. It is the best school book in the world. I would that all our people were brought up under the influence of that holy book.
I am not a party candidate, and if elected cannot be President of a party, but the President of the whole people.
I shall pursue a straight forward course deviating neither to the right or left so that comes what may I hope my real friends will never have to blush for me, so far as truth, honesty & fair dealings are concerned.
Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
Let us remember that revolutions do not always establish freedom.
The man who can look upon a crisis without being willing to offer himself upon the altar of his country is not for public trust.
Nations, like individuals in a state of nature, are equal and independent, possessing certain rights and owing certain duties to each other.
The ability to produce every necessity of life renders us independent in war as well as in peace.
May God save the country, for it is evident that the people will not.
Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)
The storm of frenzy and faction must inevitably dash itself in vain against the unshaken rock of the Constitution.
Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion.
Remember that time is money.
The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government While men inhabiting different parts of this vast continent cannot be expected to hold the same opinions, they can unite in a common objective and sustain common principles. a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded.
If your past is limited, your future is boundless.
James Buchanan (1857-1861)
What is right and what is practicable are two different things.
The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.
Liberty must be allowed to work out its natural results; and these will, ere long, astonish the world.
I like the noise of democracy.
The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among freemen.
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865)
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.
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.
How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren’t very new at all.
Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
Honest conviction is my courage; the Constitution is my guide.
The goal to strive for is a poor government but a rich people.
I hold it the duty of the executive to insist upon frugality in the expenditure, and a sparing economy is itself a great national source.
We want to get it done as quickly and inexpensively with as much creativity and flexibility as we can have.
Washington, DC is 12 square miles bordered by reality.
Ulysses S. Grant. (1869-1877)
Two commanders on the same field are always one too many.
The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.
The most confident critics are generally those who know the least about the matter criticised.
I don’t underrate the value of military knowledge, but if men make war in slavish obedience to rules, they will fail.
In every battle there comes a time when both sides consider themselves beaten, then he who continues the attack wins.
Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
I am a radical in thought (and principle) and a conservative in method (and conduct).
Unjust attacks on public men do them more good than unmerited praise.
Personally I do not resort to force–not even the force of law–to advance moral reforms. I prefer education, argument, persuasion, and above all the influence of example.
One of the tests of the civilization of people is the treatment of its criminals.
Nothing brings out the lower traits of human nature like office-seeking.
James A. Garfield (1881-1881)
Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself,— that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.
I mean to make myself a man, and if I succeed in that, I shall succeed in everything else.
A brave man is a man who dares to look the Devil in the face and tell him he is a Devil.
Ideas control the world.
Poverty is uncomfortable; but nine times out of ten the best thing that can happen to a young man is to be tossed overboard and compelled to sink or swim.
Chester A. Arthur (1881-1885)
No higher proof exists of the strength of popular government than, though the chosen of the people be struck down, his constitutional successor is peacefully installed without shock or strain.
Men may die, but the fabrics of free institutions remains unshaken.
The health of the people is of supreme importance. All measures looking to their protection against the spread of contagious diseases and to the increase of our sanitary knowledge for such purposes deserve attention of Congress.
Since I came here I have learned that Chester A. Arthur is one man and the President of the United States is another.
The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.
S. Grover Cleveland (1885-1889) (1893-1897)
Though the people support the government; the government should not support the people.
Unswerving loyalty to duty, constant devotion to truth, and a clear conscience will overcome every discouragement and surely lead the way to usefulness and high achievement.
Honor lies in honest toil.
A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence,the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves.
There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice.
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
There never has been a time in our history when work was so abundant or when wages were as high, whether measured by the currency in which they are paid or by their power to supply the necessaries and comforts of life.
Great lives never go out; they go on.
The indiscriminate denunciation of the rich is mischievous…. No poor man was ever made richer or happier by it. It is quite as illogical to despise a man because he is rich as because he is poor. Not what a man has, but what he is, settles his class. We can not right matters by taking from one what he has honestly acquired to bestow upon another what he has not earned.
Lincoln had faith in time, and time has justified his faith.
I am thorough believer in the American test of character. He will not build high who does not build for himself.
William McKinley (1897-1901)
Strong hearts and helpful hands are needed, and, fortunately, we have them in every part of our beloved country.
War should never be entered upon until every agency of peace has failed.
Without competition we would be clinging to the clumsy antiquated processes of farming and manufacture and the methods of business of long ago, and the twentieth would be no further advanced than the eighteenth century.
Illiteracy must be banished from the land if we shall attain that high destiny as the foremost of the enlightened nations of the world which, under Providence, we ought to achieve.
Half-heartedness never won a battle.
Theodore Roosevelt (1901-1909)
Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground.
It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.
Do all that you can with all you have, where ever you are.
Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage.
Believe you can and you’re halfway there.
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
William Howard Taft (1909-1913)
Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.
A government is for the benefit of all the people.
The world is not going to be saved by legislation.
Don’t write so that you can be understood, write so that you can’t be misunderstood.
Unless education promotes character making, unless it helps men to be more moral, more just to their fellows, more law abiding, more discriminatingly patriotic and public spirited, it is not worth the trouble taken to furnish it.
T. Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
The seed of revolution is repression.
If you want to make enemies, try to change something.
The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.
Life does not consist in thinking, it consists in acting.
One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.
Warren G. Harding (1921-1923)
It is my conviction that the fundamental trouble with the people of the United States is that they have gotten too far away from Almighty God.
Ambition is a commendable attribute, without which no man succeeds. Only inconsiderate ambition imperils.
Less government in business and more business in government.
In the experiences of a year of the Presidency, there has come to me no other such unwelcome impression as the manifest religious intolerance which exists among many of our citizens. I hold it to be a menace to the very liberties we boast and cherish.
We must proceed with a full realization that no statute enacted by man can repeal the inexorable laws of nature.
J. Calvin Coolidge (1923-1929)
Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Patriotism is easy to understand in America. It means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country.
Those who trust to chance must abide by the results of chance.
No man ever listened himself out of a job.
Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.
Herbert C Hoover (1929-1933)
A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage
Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.
Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.
Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.
Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public treasury.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.
The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.
Remember you are just an extra in everyone else’s play.
We are working toward a definite goal, which is to prevent the return of conditions which came very close to destroying what we call modern civilization. The actual accomplishment of our purpose cannot be attained in a day.
When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Harry S. Truman (1945-1953)
I have found the best way to give advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.
The human animal cannot be trusted for anything good except en masse. The combined thought and action of the whole people of any race, creed or nationality, will always point in the right direction.
I have no desire to crow over anybody or to see anybody eating crow, figuratively or otherwise. We should all get together and make a country in which everybody can eat turkey whenever he pleases.
We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.
I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.
The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice–their choice.
You know, farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.
For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)
Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.
Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.
Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.
There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction.
Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans – born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read President Can’t Swim.
You aren’t learning anything when you’re talking.
Until justice is blind to color, until education is unaware of race, until opportunity is unconcerned with the color of men’s skins, emancipation will be a proclamation but not a fact.
Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose.
There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.
Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.
Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974)
Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.
We are not spending the Federal Government’s money, we are spending the taxpayer’s money, and it must be spent n a way which guarantees his money’s worth and yields the fullest possible benefit to the people being helped.
The American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press.
The man of thought who will not act is ineffective; the man of action who will not think is dangerous.
The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.
Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977)
I believe in friendly compromise. I said over in the Senate hearings that truth is the glue that holds government together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.
My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.
It’s the quality of the ordinary, the straight, the square, that accounts for the great stability and success of our nation. It’s a quality to be proud of. But it’s a quality that many people seem to have neglected.
In all my public and private acts as your president, I expect to follow my instincts of openness and candor with full confidence that honesty is always the best policy in the end.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.
James E. Carter (1977-1981)
America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.
If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.
We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.
We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.
Put on a sweater.
Ronald W. Reagan (1981-1989)
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.
We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.
All great change in America begins at the dinner table.
George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)
There is nothing more fulfilling than to serve your country and your fellow citizens and to do it well.
We are a nation of communities… a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.
I think when you see an aircraft fire, these angry, black puffs of smoke, knowing that one of them could kill you that you – you – you understand the seriousness of the mission. And you understand your own mortality.
America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.
We know what works. Freedom Works. We know what’s right. Freedom is right.
William J. Clinton (1993-2001)
There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.
The new rage is to say that the government is the cause of all our problems, and if only we had no government, we’d have no problems. I can tell you, that contradicts evidence, history, and common sense.
In the new economy, information, education, and motivation are everything.
We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.
If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.
George W. Bush (2001-2009)
Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.
I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together.
To those of you who received honours, awards and distinctions, I say well done. And to the C students, I say you, too, can be president of the United States.
Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve.
Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.
Barack H Obama. (2009-2017)
The future rewards those who press on. I don’t have time to feel sorry for myself. I don’t have time to complain. I’m going to press on.
We need to internalize this idea of excellence. Not many folks spend a lot of time trying to be excellent.
Progress will come in fits and starts. It’s not always a straight line. It’s not always smooth path.
If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking, eventually you’ll make progress.
You can’t let your failures define you. You have to let your failures teach you.
Donald J. Trump (2017-present)
No dream is too big. No challenge is too great. Nothing we want for our future is beyond our reach.
I judge people based on their capability, honesty, and merit.
What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.
Get going. Move forward. Aim High. Plan a takeoff. Don’t just sit on the runway and hope someone will come along and push the airplane. It simply won’t happen. Change your attitude and gain some altitude. Believe me, you’ll love it up here.
Remember There’s No Such Thing As An Unrealistic Goal – Just Unrealistic Time Frames
Reseaching these quotes over the past couple of months has been fun and interesting. I learned more about the way these President’s lived and thought. Interestingly, many of the same frustrations of our recent Presidents plagued others throughout our nation’s history. Discord with Congress and a tense relationship with the media seemed to affect most Presidents.
I found the White House site to be extremely useful providing biographical sketches and links to even more information about each President. I encourage you to check out their site.
