My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician. And to tell the truth, there’s hardly any difference.
A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.
America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.
To be able to lead others, a man must be willing to go forward alone.
Term limits would cure both senility and seniority- both terrible legislative diseases.
Men make history and not the other way around. In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.
There are always a lot of people so afraid of rocking the boat that they stop rowing. We can never get ahead that way.
I never would have agreed to the formulation of the Central Intelligence Agency back in forty-seven, if I had known it would become the American Gestapo.
My favorite animal is the mule. He has more horse sense than a horse. He knows when to stop eating – and he knows when to stop working.
A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.
Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.
I found that the men and women who got to the top were those who did the jobs they had in hand, with everything they had of energy and enthusiasm and hard work.
No one in the world can take the place of your mother. Right or wrong, from her viewpoint you are always right. She may scold you for little things, but never for the big ones.
The Republicans believe in the minimum wage – the more the minimum, the better.
Every segment of our population, and every individual, has a right to expect from his government a fair deal.
I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.
When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.
Some of my best friends never agree with me politically.
The Republican Party either corrupts its liberals or it expels them.
Selfishness and greed, individual or national, cause most of our troubles.