Richard Nixon 1v2g5u

In war time, a president does have certain extraordinary powers which would make acts that would otherwise be unlawful, lawful if undertaken for the purpose of preserving the nation and the Constitution, which is essential for the rights we're all talking about. Show less «

[on why one of the Watergate tapes had 18 minutes erased] Oh that was just an accident that happened. Show less «

[from a conference call to news organizations, September 8, 1974] I know many fair-minded people believe that my motivations and actions in the Watergate affair were intentionally self-serving and illegal. I now understand how my own mistakes and misjudgments have contributed to that belief and seem to it. This burden is the heaviest one of all to bear. That the way I tried to deal with Watergate was the wrong way is a burden I shall bear for every day of the life that is left to me. Show less «

I had never been a quitter.

I am not a crook!

We simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of nations, there to nurture it's fantasies, cherish it's hates and threaten it's neighbors. There is no place on this small planet for a billion of it's potentially most able people to live in angry isolation. Show less «

If it hadn't been for Edgar Hoover, I couldn't have carried out my responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief. Period. He is a pillar of strength in a city of weak men. Show less «

Always , others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself. Show less «

[on violating citizen's rights] When the President does it, that means it is not illegal.

If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest shopping center in the world?

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do. Show less «

It is necessary to struggle, to be embattled, to be knocked down and to have to get up. Renewal, Americans are crazy for renewal. Show less «

[on President Eisenhower] He was a far more complex and devious man than most people realize, in the best sense of those words. Not shackled to a one-track mind, he always applied two, three or four lines of reasoning to a single problem... His thoughts far outraced his speech and this gave rise to his frequent'scrambled syntax'. Show less «

[more advice to Reagan] Shaking up a team at midterm is not a sign of weakness. Done the right way, it increases your status at home and abroad as a strong leader who will not tolerate ineffectiveness,let alone disloyalty or dishonesty. I speak from experience. Some charged me with being too tough on subordinates. In retrospect, had I been tough, I might have avoided some of the problems that plagued me at the last. Show less «

[in a televised address to the nation, November 17, 1973] In all my years of public service I have never obstructed justice. People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well I'm not a crook. I've earned everything I've got. Show less «

[from the Watergate tapes] Goddamn it, get in and get those files. Blow the safe and get it.

[to reporters on the day after losing the California governorship race to Edmund Brown, 1962] Just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore. Show less «

[caught on tape, advice to incoming FBI head, L. Patrick Gray] Never, never figure that anyone's your friend. Never, never, never. You've got to be a conspirator. You've got to be totally ruthless. You've got to appear to be a nice guy. But underneath you need to be steely tough. That, believe me, is the way to run the bureau. Show less «

Life isn't meant to be easy. It's hard to take being on the top--or on the bottom. I guess I'm something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things . . . Life is one crisis after another. Show less «

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

The best politics is poetry, not prose. Jesse Jackson is a poet. Mario Cuomo is a poet, and Michael Dukakis is a word processor. Show less «

[on E. Howard Hunt and the CIA] I want the break-in. Hell, they do that. You're to break into the place, rifle the files and bring them in..Just go in and take it. Show less «

Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal . . . If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position. Show less «

[his final remarks to the White House staff upon reg] Always , others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself. Show less «

[from his interview with David Frost] I let the American people down, and I have to carry that burden with me for the rest of my life. Show less «

I gave 'em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing. Show less «

We can't learn from one another, until we stop shouting at one another . . . until our words can be heard. Show less «

It's our prosperity we have to protect, not labour.

[on Presidential appointments] Perle Mesta wasn't sent to Luxembourg because she had big bosoms. Perle Mesta went to Luxembourg because she made a good contribution. She was a very good ambassador. Show less «

Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits. Show less «

[some campaigning advice to Ronald Reagan] Let Carter come on uptight, nitpicking and mean. You should be a contrast, strong but not shrill; in command, poised, the big man versus the little man. Show less «

I think President Johnson dies of a broken heart, I really do. Here's Johnson, this big, strong, intelligent tough guy, practically getting so emotional that he'd almost cry because his critics didn't appreciate him. He, til the very last, thought that he might be able to win them. And the point is, rather than have them love him, he should have done what he could have done very well - have them respect him. And in the end he lost. He neither gained the love nor retained the respect. Show less «