Top 100 Gerald R. Ford Quotes (2026 Update)
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51. “I don’t know what the future may hold for me-or for any of us. But I want you to know that I am a man who likes having critics who are not enemies.”

— Gerald R. Ford

52. “The length of one’s days matters less than the love of one’s family and friends.”

— Gerald R. Ford

53. “Let us remember that our national unity is a most priceless asset.”

— Gerald R. Ford

54. “I love sports. Whenever I can, I always watch the Detroit Tigers on the radio.”

— Gerald R. Ford

55. “Our Nation has a diverse and extremely rich cultural heritage. It is a source of pride and strength to millions of Americans who look to the arts for inspiration, communication and the opportunity for creative self-expression.”

— Gerald R. Ford

56. “Theirs is an American tragedy in which we all have played a part. It could go on and on, or someone must write “The End” to it. I have concluded that only I can do that. And if I can, I must.”

— Gerald R. Ford

57. “Compromise is the oil that makes governments go.”

— Gerald R. Ford

58. “I do believe, with all my heart and mind and spirit, that I, not as President but as a humble servant of God, will receive justice without mercy if I fail to show mercy.”

— Gerald R. Ford

59. “A great nation cannot abandon its responsibilities. Responsibilities abandoned today return as more acute crises tomorrow.”

— Gerald R. Ford

60. “This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”

— Gerald R. Ford

61. “I think that sports, particularly football, gave me an opportunity to be out front, to be a leader, which helped me later on, when I got into politics.”

— Gerald R. Ford

62. “Real assistance is to help people to help themselves. We can’t do everything for everybody, but there is room for all who try to make it.”

— Gerald R. Ford

63. “We must introduce a new balance in the relationship between the individual and the government – a balance that favors greater individual freedom and self-reliance.”

— Gerald R. Ford

64. “The three-martini lunch is the epitome of American efficiency. Where else can you get an earful, a bellyful and a snootful at the same time?”

— Gerald R. Ford

65. “We have come tardily to the tremendous task of cleaning up our environment. We should have moved with similar zeal at least a decade ago. But no purpose is served by post-mortems. With visionary zeal but the greatest realism, we must now address ourselves to the vast problems that confront us.”

— Gerald R. Ford

66. “One of the enduring truths of the nation’s capital is that bureaucrats survive.”

— Gerald R. Ford

67. “America needed recovery, not revenge. The hate had to be drained and the healing begun.”

— Gerald R. Ford

68. “It feels like getting a back massage from the Grim Reaper: one must get comfortable with the most horrifying things in the world.”

— Gerald R. Ford

69. “I couldn’t wait to start the day.”

— Gerald R. Ford

70. “All of us who served in one war or another know very well that all wars are the glory and the agony of the young.”

— Gerald R. Ford

71. “We came from many roots, and we have many branches.”

— Gerald R. Ford

72. “I think they ought to be treated equally. Period.”

— Gerald R. Ford

73. “I was dumbfounded by the stupidity of the Watergate break-in.”

— Gerald R. Ford

74. “All my children have spoken for themselves since they first learned to speak, and not always with my advance approval, and I expect that to continue in the future.”

— Gerald R. Ford

75. “A coalition of groups is waging a massive propaganda campaign against the president of the United States. an all-out attack. Their aim is total victory for themselves and total defeat for him.”

— Gerald R. Ford

76. “I am determined to seek self-sufficiency in energy as an urgent national priority. My goal is to make America independent of foreign energy sources by 1985.”

— Gerald R. Ford

77. “I am the first to admit that I am no great orator or no person that got where I have gotten by any William Jennings Bryan technique.”

— Gerald R. Ford

78. “America’s leadership is essential. America’s resources are vast. America’s opportunities are unprecedented.”

— Gerald R. Ford

79. “We must proceed with our own energy development. Exploitation of domestic petroleum and natural gas potentialities, along with nuclear, solar, geothermal, and non-fossil fuels is vital. We will never again permit any foreign nation to have Uncle Sam over a barrel of oil.”

— Gerald R. Ford

80. “As I rejected amnesty, so I reject revenge. I ask all Americans who ever asked for goodness and mercy in their lives, who ever sought forgiveness for their trespasses, to join in rehabilitating all the casualties of the tragic conflict of the past.”

— Gerald R. Ford

81. “Let us put an end to self-inflicted wounds. Let us remember that our national unity is a most priceless asset. Let us deny our adversaries the satisfaction of using Vietnam to pit Americans against Americans.”

— Gerald R. Ford

82. “It’s discouraging how hard it is for a President to slice away large chunks of a $305 billion budget.”

— Gerald R. Ford

83. “I remain convinced that pardoning Nixon was the right thing to do.”

— Gerald R. Ford

84. “During the day on Monday, Washington time, the airport at Saigon came under persistent rocket as well as artillery fire and was effectively closed. The military situation in the area deteriorated rapidly. I therefore ordered the evacuation of all American personnel remaining in South Vietnam.”

— Gerald R. Ford

85. “Obviously, it’s a great privilege and pleasure to be here at the Yale Law School Sesquicentennial Convocation. And I defy anyone to say that and chew gum at the same time.”

— Gerald R. Ford

86. “There are no adequate substitutes for father, mother, and children bound together in a loving commitment to nurture and protect. No government, no matter how well-intentioned, can take the place of the family in the scheme of things.”

— Gerald R. Ford

87. “In a democracy, the public has a right to know not only what the government decides, but why and by what process.”

— Gerald R. Ford

88. “Our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men. Here, the people rule.”

— Gerald R. Ford

89. “For millions of men and women, the church has been the hospital for the soul, the school for the mind and the safe depository for moral ideas.”

— Gerald R. Ford

90. “The old question still remains: Can a free people restrain crime without sacrificing fundamental liberties and a heritage of compassion?”

— Gerald R. Ford

91. “The Communist leaders in Moscow, Peking and Hanoi must fully understand that the United States considers the freedom of South Viet Nam vital to our interests. And they must know that we are not bluffing in our determination to defend those interests.”

— Gerald R. Ford

92. “If it is a clich? to say athletics build character as well as muscle, then I subscribe to the clich.”

— Gerald R. Ford

93. “It’s the quality of the ordinary, the straight, the square, that accounts for the great stability and success of our nation. It’s a quality to be proud of. But it’s a quality that many people seem to have neglected.”

— Gerald R. Ford

94. “The Federal role in overcoming barriers to needed health care should emphasize health care financing programs-such as Medicare and Medicaid.”

— Gerald R. Ford

95. “We have too long treated the natural world as an adversary rather than as a life-sustaining gift from the Almighty. If man has the genius to build, which he has, he must also have the ability and the responsibility to preserve.”

— Gerald R. Ford

96. “So much of what passes for public life consists of little more than candidates without ideas, hiring consultants without conviction, to stage campaigns without content. The result, increasingly, is elections without voters.”

— Gerald R. Ford

97. “Today, America can regain the sense of pride that existed before Vietnam. These events, tragic as they are, portend neither the end of the world nor of America’s leadership in the world.”

— Gerald R. Ford

98. “The pat on the back, the arm around the shoulder, the praise for what was done right and the sympathetic nod for what wasn’t are as much a part of golf as life itself.”

— Gerald R. Ford

99. “It is good to be back in the Peoples House. But this cannot be a real homecoming. Under the Constitution, I now belong to the executive branch. The Supreme Court has even ruled that I am the executive branchhead, heart, and hand.”

— Gerald R. Ford

100. “I hope never to see the day that I cannot admit having made a mistake.”

— Gerald R. Ford