Richard M. Nixon Quotes (141 Quotes)

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.

I made my mistakes, but in all my years of public life, I have never profited from public service. I've earned every cent. And in all of my years in public life I have never obstructed justice. And I think, too, that I can say that in my years of pub

My strong point, if I have a strong point, is performance. I always do more than I say. I always produce more than I promise.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

The memory of that scene for me is like a frame of film forever frozen at that moment: the red carpet, the green lawn, the white house, the leaden sky. The new president and his first lady.

President Johnson and I have a lot in common. We were both born in small towns and we're both fortunate in the fact that we think we married above ourselves.

I've analyzed the best I can... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

The press is the enemy.

So you are lean and mean and resourceful and you continue to walk on the edge of the precipice because over the years you have become fascinated by how close you can walk without losing your balance.

Once one determines that he or she has a mission in life, that's it's not going to be accomplished without a great deal of pain, and that the rewards in the end may not outweigh the pain --if you recognize historically that always happens, then when it comes, you survive it.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don't care what they say, they like it.

This is my first cook-off. Actually, the people at the track have been really good to me ... I really just entered the cook-off to support the track.

The easiest period in a crisis situation is actually the battle itself. The most difficult is the period of indecision -- whether to fight or run away. And the most dangerous period is the aftermath. It is then, with all his resources spent and his guard down, that an individual must watch out for dulled reactions and faulty judgment.

They say, Gee, you look great. That means they thought you looked like hell before.

Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much.

Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism, idealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that.

There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I'm not like that I never shoot blanks.

Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren't for the goddamned people.

Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency.

A public man must never forget that he loses his usefulness when he as an individual, rather than his policy, becomes the issue.

If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose.

If you are ever going to lie, you go to jail for the lie rather than the crime. So believe me, don't ever lie.

Castro couldn't even go to the bathroom unless the Soviet Union put the nickel in the toilet.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

The true idealist pursues what his heart says is right in a way that his head says will work.

It I talked about Watergate, I was described as struggling to free myself from the morass. If I did not talk about Watergate, I was accused of being out of touch with reality.

My own view is that taping of conversations for historical purposes was a bad decision on the part of all the presidents. I don't think Kennedy should have done it. I don't think Johnson should have done it, and I don't think we should have done it.

For years politicians have promised the moon. I'm the first one to be able to deliver it.

The American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press.

Tell them to send everything that can fly.

The lesson of all history warns us that we should negotiate only when our military superiority is so convincing that we can achieve our objective at the conference table, and deny the aggressor theirs.

Remember, 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.

We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.

You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

I took a look around the office. I walked out and closed the door behind me. I knew that I would not be back there again.

If I were to make public these tapes, containing blunt and candid remarks on many different subjects, the confidentiality of the office of the president would always be suspect.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.

I often thought that if there had been a good rap group around in those days, I might have chosen a career in music instead of politics.

For one priceless moment in the whole history of man, all of the people on this earth are truly one. One in their pride at what you have done, one in our prayers that you will return safely to earth.

I let the American people down.

Well, I screwed it up real good, didn't I?

Don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects.

The more you stay in this kind of job, the more you realize that a public figure, a major public figure, is a lonely man.

When I grow up, I want to be an honest lawyer so things like that can't happen.

When I retire I'm going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned.

I knew if I continued to look around it would be difficult for me to contain my own emotions. So I turned away from the red eyes of the crowd and looked only at the red eye of the camera, talking to all the nation.

In our own lives, let each of us ask - not just what government will do for me, but what can I do for myself Richard M