Richard Nixon: Trending quotes

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Richard Nixon: 178 quotes1 like

“So few of those who engage in espionage are Negroes. In fact, very few of them become Communists. If they do, they like, they get into Angela Davis — they're more the capitalist type. And they throw bombs and this and that. But the Negroes — have you ever noticed any Negro spies?”

Richard Nixon

Nixon, Haldeman, and Ziegler, 4:03 P.M., Oval Office Conversation #537-4; cassette #876 (5 July 1971)
1970s

“I recognize that this additional material I am now furnishing may further damage my case.”

Richard Nixon

After the court-ordered release of the White House tapes (5 August 1974)
1970s

“Hello, Neil and Buzz. I'm talking to you by telephone from the Oval Room at the White House. And this certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made. For every American this has to be the proudest day of our lives. And for people all over the world I am sure they, too, join with Americans in recognizing what a feat this is. Because of what you have done, the heavens have become a part of man's world. As you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquility, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and tranquility to Earth. For one priceless moment, in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one.”

Richard Nixon

Telephone message from the Oval office to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon. (20 July 1969)
1960s

“We're going to [put] more of these little Negro bastards on the welfare rolls at $2,400 a family. Let people like Pat Moynihan and [special consultant] Leonard Garment and others believe in all that crap. But I don't believe in it. Work, work — throw 'em off the rolls. That's the key.”

Richard Nixon

1970s, Tape transcripts (1971)

“Now, some may ask why we don't get rid of the bases, since the Soviet Government declares today that it has only peaceful intentions. The answer is that whenever the fear and suspicions that caused us and our Allies to take measures for collective self-defense are removed, the reason for our maintaining bases will be removed. In other words, the only possible solution of this problem lies in mutual, rather than unilateral action leading toward disarmament.”

Richard Nixon

Remarks during a radio address in Moscow, quoted in "1959 Year In Review: Death of John Foster Dulles," http://www.upi.com/Audio/Year_in_Review/Events-of-1959/Death-of-John-Foster-Dulles/12295509433704-3/#title UPI.com (1959) 1950s

“The Jewish cabal is out to get me.”

Richard Nixon

A remark repeated by Nixon several times in private conversations (c. 1971) as quoted in The Final Days by Bob Woodward
1970s

“A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.”

Richard Nixon

1969 note to self, as quoted in Nixon (1987) by Stephen E. Ambrose, p. 284
1960s
Variant: A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

“If he gets shot, it's too damn bad.”

Richard Nixon

Conversation about Senator Edward Kennedy with White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman (7 September 1972)
1970s, Tape transcripts (1972)

“The greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes when you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes; because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. Always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember: Others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win, unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself.”

Richard Nixon

Speech to the assembled White House staff before his final departure (9 August 1974)
1970s

“Do you want to make a point or do you want to make a change? do you want to get something off your chest, or do you want to get something done?”

Richard Nixon

Campaign speech in Michigan (1968) https://books.google.com/?id=uXRx5hGm8zYC&dq="Do+you+want+to+make+a+point+or+do+you+want+to+make+a+change"&pg=PA17 1960s

“Let us build a structure of peace in the world in which the weak are as safe as the strong — in which each respects the right of the other to live by a different system — in which those who would influence others will do so by the strength of their ideas, and not by the force of their arms.
Let us accept that high responsibility not as a burden, but gladly — gladly because the chance to build such a peace is the noblest endeavor in which a nation can engage; gladly, also, because only if we act greatly in meeting our responsibilities abroad will we remain a great Nation, and only if we remain a great Nation will we act greatly in meeting our challenges at home.”

Richard Nixon

1970s, Second Inaugural Address (1973)

“Oh, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.”

Richard Nixon

Interview with David Frost (19 May 1977) ( video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejvyDn1TPr8); printed in The New York Times (20 May 1977), p. A16; also in "Nixon's Views on Presidential Power: Excerpts from an Interview with David Frost" http://www.landmarkcases.org/nixon/nixonview.html, referring to the Huston Plan and views of presidential authority. 1970s

“I’ve just recognized that, you know, all people have certain traits. … The Jews have certain traits. The Irish have certain — for example, the Irish can’t drink. What you always have to remember with the Irish is they get mean. Virtually every Irish I’ve known gets mean when he drinks. Particularly the real Irish. … The Italians, of course, those people course don’t have their heads screwed on tight. They are wonderful people, but …The Jews are just a very aggressive and abrasive and obnoxious personality.”

Richard Nixon

Conversation with Charles W. Colson, Feb. 13, 1973 http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/flash/national/20101211_NIXON_AUDIO/2_TYPES.mp3, as quoted in "In Tapes, Nixon Rails About Jews and Blacks" http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/11/us/politics/11nixon.html, by Adam Nagourney, New York Times (10 December 2010) 1970s

“I think most Americans understood that the My Lai massacre was not representative of our people, of the war we were fighting, or of our men who were fighting it; but from the time it first became public the whole tragic episode was used by the media and the antiwar forces to chip away at our efforts to build public support for our Vietnam objectives and policies.”

Richard Nixon

As quoted in Convergences (2005) [second edition] by Robert Atwan, [Bedford/St. Martin's. p. 403]
2000s

“I very firmly believe that what unites America today is infinitely more important than those things which divide us. We are united Americans — North, East, West, and South, both parties — in our desire for peace, peace with honor, the kind of a peace that will last, and we are moving swiftly toward that great goal, not just in Vietnam, but a new era of peace in which the old relationships between the two super powers, the Soviet Union and the United States, and between the world's most populous nation, the People's Republic of China, and the United States, are changed so that we are on the eve of what could be the greatest generation of peace, true peace for the whole world, that man has ever known.”

Richard Nixon

1970s, Remarks on Being Reelected (1972)

“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-rate power and to see this Nation accept the first defeat in its proud 190-year history.”

Richard Nixon

Address to the nation on the situation in Southeast Asia (30 April 1970); in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, 1970, p. 410
1970s

“Screw State! State's always on the side of the blacks. The hell with them!”

Richard Nixon

1970s, Tape transcripts (1972) Source: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976 Volume E-5, Part 1, Documents on Sub-Saharan Africa, 1969-1972, Document 258 Conversation Between President Nixon and the President's Assistant for National Security Affairs (Kissinger), Camp David, September 24, 1972, 11:37-11:52 a.m http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve05p1/d258

“We shall support vigorously the principle that no country has the right to impose its will or rule on another by force.
We shall continue, in this era of negotiation, to work for the limitation of nuclear arms, and to reduce the danger of confrontation between the great powers.
We shall do our share in defending peace and freedom in the world. But we shall expect others to do their share.
The time has passed when America will make every other nation's conflict our own, or make every other nation's future our responsibility, or presume to tell the people of other nations how to manage their own affairs.”

Richard Nixon

1970s, Second Inaugural Address (1973)

“Each moment in history is a fleeting time, precious and unique. But some stand out as moments of beginning, in which courses are set that shape decades or centuries.
This can be such a moment.
Forces now are converging that make possible, for the first time, the hope that many of man's deepest aspirations can at last be realized. The spiraling pace of change allows us to contemplate, within our own lifetime, advances that once would have taken centuries.
In throwing wide the horizons of space, we have discovered new horizons on earth.
For the first time, because the people of the world want peace, and the leaders of the world are afraid of war, the times are on the side of peace.”

Richard Nixon

1960s, First Inaugural Address (1969)

“If, when the chips are down, the world's most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.”

Richard Nixon

Address to the nation on the situation in Southeast Asia (April 30, 1970); in Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, 1970, p. 409
1970s