A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.
Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.
I brought myself down. I impeached myself by resigning.
You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates.
I let the American people down.
It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.
Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.
You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I'm innocent. You've got to believe I'm innocent. If you don't, take my job.
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.
Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.
I have impeached myself by resigning.
If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.
Tonight - to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans - I ask for your support.
Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.
Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency.
I'm glad I'm not Brezhnev. Being the Russian leader in the Kremlin. You never know if someone's tape recording what you say.
Let us build bridges, my friends, build bridges to human dignity across that gulf that separates black America from white America.
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.
If you think the United States has stood still, who built the largest shopping center in the world?
As this long and difficult war ends, I would like to address a few special words to the American people: Your steadfastness in supporting our insistence on peace with honor has made peace with honor possible.
Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.
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.
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 presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.
At home, we must reject the mistaken notion - a notion that has dominated too much of the public dialogue for too long - that ever bigger Government is the answer to every problem.
Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don't care what they say, they like it.
What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance.
Watergate had become the center of the media's universe, and during the remaining year of my presidency the media tried to force everything else to revolve around it.
Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.
I see the face of a child. He lives in a great city. He is black. Or he is white. He is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None of that matters. What matters, he's an American child.
Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.
I've analyzed the best I can... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.
I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business.
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.
Voters quickly forget what a man says.
People react to fear, not love; they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.
The press is the enemy.
Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation.
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.
It's a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can't stop playing the game the way you've always played it.
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.
By the time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you've blown seven hours. There are better things you can do with your time.
The successful leader does not talk down to people. He lifts them up.
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.
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.
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.
Solutions are not the answer.
I don't know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports.
