
“I would rather be right than be President.”
Speech, Senate (1850), referring to the Compromise Measures.
Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)
“I would rather be right than be President.”
Speech, Senate (1850), referring to the Compromise Measures.
“The best of us would rather be popular than right.”
No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger (unpublished manuscript written 1902–1908)
“I would rather be beaten in Right than succeed in Wrong.”
Source: Maxims of James Abram Garfield (1880), compiled by William Ralston Balch, p. 1
Source: Travelling Light: Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear (2001)
1990s, Why "Free Software" is better than "Open Source" (1998)
“I would rather have a clean government than one where 'First Amendment rights' are being respected”
On the Don Imus show (28 April 2006)
2000s, 2006
Context: I work in Washington and I know that money corrupts. And I and a lot of other people were trying to stop that corruption. Obviously, from what we've been seeing lately, we didn't complete the job. But I would rather have a clean government than one where 'First Amendment rights' are being respected that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I'd rather have the clean government.
“Jefferson thought schools would produce free men: we prove him right by putting dropouts in jail.”
A Passion for Democracy: American Essays (2000) p. 211
"President George Albert Smith's Creed," Improvement Era, Apr. 1950, 262 (via Teachings of Presidents of the Church: George Albert Smith, Chapter 14: How to Share the Gospel Effectively).
1960s, The American Promise (1965)
Context: We must preserve the right of free speech and the right of free assembly. But the right of free speech does not carry with it, as has been said, the right to holler fire in a crowded theater. We must preserve the right to free assembly, but free assembly does not carry with it the right to block public thoroughfares to traffic. We do have a right to protest, and a right to march under conditions that do not infringe the constitutional rights of our neighbors. And I intend to protect all those rights as long as I am permitted to serve in this office. We will guard against violence, knowing it strikes from our hands the very weapons which we seek — progress, obedience to law, and belief in American values.