Top 100 Gerald R. Ford Quotes (2026 Update)

1. “The American dream does not come to those who fall asleep.”

— Gerald R. Ford

2. “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”

— Gerald R. Ford

Featured in: Patriotic Quotes

3. “Music education opens doors that help children pass from school into the world around them – a world of work, culture, intellectual activity, and human involvement. The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.”

— Gerald R. Ford

4. “Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.”

— Gerald R. Ford

5. “Never be satisfied with less than your very best effort. If you strive for the top and miss, you’ll still ‘beat the pack.’”

— Gerald R. Ford

6. “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”

— Gerald R. Ford

7. “Personal excellence can be achieved by a visionary goal, through planning, dedicated execution, and total follow-through.”

— Gerald R. Ford

8. “If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing is more important than the abillity to communicate effectively.”

— Gerald R. Ford

9. “I do believe that the buck stops here, that I cannot rely upon public opinion polls to tell me what is right.”

— Gerald R. Ford

10. “We cannot stand still or slip backwards. We must go forward now together.”

— Gerald R. Ford

11. “I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.”

— Gerald R. Ford

12. “I know I will go to hell, because I pardoned Richard Nixon.”

— Gerald R. Ford

13. “The harder you work, the luckier you are, and I worked like hell.”

— Gerald R. Ford

14. “The future of our nation depends on providing our children with a complete education that includes music.”

— Gerald R. Ford

15. “The political lesson of Watergate is this: Never again must America allow an arrogant, elite guard of political adolescents to by-pass the regular party organization and dictate the terms of a national election.”

— Gerald R. Ford

16. “If compassion and mercy are not compatible with politics then something is the matter with politics.”

— Gerald R. Ford

17. “The spirit of seeking understanding through personal contact with people of other nations and other cultures deserves the respect and support of all.”

— Gerald R. Ford

18. “Without God there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life.”

— Gerald R. Ford

19. “Let America symbolize humanity’s struggle to conquer nature and master technology. The time has now come for our Government to facilitate the individual’s control over his or her future-and of the future of America.”

— Gerald R. Ford

20. “When a man is asked to make a speech, the first thing he has to decide is what to say.”

— Gerald R. Ford

21. “We are bound together by the most powerful of all ties, our fervent love for freedom and independence, which knows no homeland but the human heart.”

— Gerald R. Ford

22. “In the age-old contest between popularity and principle, only those willing to lose for their convictions are deserving of posterity’s approval.”

— Gerald R. Ford

23. “If Lincoln were alive today, he’d be turning over in his grave.”

— Gerald R. Ford

24. “I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government, but civilization itself.”

— Gerald R. Ford

25. “The power and diversity of the Armed Forces, active Guard and Reserve, the resolve of our fellow citizens, the flexibility in our command to navigate international waters that remain troubled are all essential to our security.”

— Gerald R. Ford

26. “There is an old saying, The harder you try the luckier you get. I kind of like that definition of luck.”

— Gerald R. Ford

27. “Ronald Regan doesn’t dye his hair – he’s just prematurely orange.”

— Gerald R. Ford

28. “I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators.”

— Gerald R. Ford

29. “I am a Ford, not a Lincoln. My addresses will never be as eloquent as Mr. Lincoln’s. But I will do my very best to equal his brevity and his plain speaking.”

— Gerald R. Ford

30. “There is no undertaking more challenging, no responsibility more awesome, than that of being a mother.”

— Gerald R. Ford

31. “Frankly, I’ve never felt voting to be all that essential to the process.”

— Gerald R. Ford

32. “My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here the people rule. But there is a higher Power, by whatever name we honor Him, who ordains not only righteousness but love, not only justice but mercy.”

— Gerald R. Ford

33. “I would like to deny all allegations by Bob Hope that during my last game of golf, I hit an eagle, a birdie, an elk and a moose.”

— Gerald R. Ford

34. “I recognize the need for technology that enriches life while preserving our natural environment. My goal is to stimulate productivity, but use technology to redeem, not to destroy our environment.”

— Gerald R. Ford

35. “An American tragedy in which we all have played a part.”

— Gerald R. Ford

36. “I had a lot of experience with people smarter than I am.”

— Gerald R. Ford

37. “My goal is for a cooperative world at peace, using its resources to build, not to destroy.”

— Gerald R. Ford

38. “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.”

— Gerald R. Ford

39. “Sit down before facts as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion – or you shall learn nothing.”

— Gerald R. Ford

40. “I strongly support the feeding of children.”

— Gerald R. Ford

41. “I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your President by your ballots, so I ask you to confirm me with your prayers.”

— Gerald R. Ford

42. “The Constitution is the bedrock of all our freedoms; guard and cherish it; keep honor and order in your own house; and the republic will endure.”

— Gerald R. Ford

43. “I had pro offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, who were pretty hard up for linemen in those days. If I had gone into professional football the name Jerry Ford might have been a household word today.”

— Gerald R. Ford

44. “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”

— Gerald R. Ford

45. “Mr. President, putting it bluntly, wouldn’t we just be continuing a bloodbath that already exists in Cambodia if we voted the 222 million in aid?”

— Gerald R. Ford

46. “I had a life-long ambition to be a professional baseball player, but nobody would sign me.”

— Gerald R. Ford

47. “It’s more like it is now than it ever has been.”

— Gerald R. Ford

48. “I believe in friendly compromise. I said over in the Senate hearings that truth is the glue that holds government together. Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.”

— Gerald R. Ford

49. “I have always felt that the real purpose of government is to enhance the lives of people and that a leader can best do that by restraining government in most cases instead of enlarging it at every opportunity.”

— Gerald R. Ford

50. “History and experience tell us that moral progress comes not in comfortable and complacent times, but out of trial and confusion.”

— Gerald R. Ford