Top 300 Jimmy Carter Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 7

51. “Jerry Falwell can go straight to hell – and I mean that in a Christian way.”

— Jimmy Carter

52. “I have never been happier, more exhilarated, at peace, rested, inspired, and aware of the grandeur of the universe and the greatness of God than when I find myself in a natural setting not much changed from the way He made it.”

— Jimmy Carter

53. “Because we are free, we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere.”

— Jimmy Carter

54. “Too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption.”

— Jimmy Carter

55. “Spirit is like the wind, in that we can’t see it but can see its effects, which are profound.”

— Jimmy Carter

56. “Iran is an island of stability in a turbulent corner of the world.”

— Jimmy Carter

57. “Our individual fates are linked our futures intertwined.”

— Jimmy Carter

58. “Today, in directly harnessing the power of the Sun, we’re taking the energy that God gave us, the most renewable energy that we will ever see, and using it to replace our dwindling supplies of fossil fuels.”

— Jimmy Carter

59. “If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.”

— Jimmy Carter

60. “There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.”

— Jimmy Carter

61. “Our Income Tax System is a disgrace to the human race.”

— Jimmy Carter

62. “Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.”

— Jimmy Carter

63. “When combined, the small individual contributors of caring, friendship, forgiveness, and love, each of us different from our next-door neighbors, can form a phalanx, an army, with great capability.”

— Jimmy Carter

64. “In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption .”

— Jimmy Carter

65. “We believe in separation of church and state, that there should be no unwarranted influence on the church or religion by the state, and vice versa.”

— Jimmy Carter

66. “We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.”

— Jimmy Carter

67. “This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation. The energy crisis is real. It is worldwide. It is a clear and present danger to our nation. These are facts and we simply must face them.”

— Jimmy Carter

68. “But I am not discouraged. I do not despair for our country. I believe tonight, as I always have, that the essential decency, compassion and common sense of the American people will prevail.”

— Jimmy Carter

69. “I am pro-Israeli, not because of political expediency, but because I believe Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.”

— Jimmy Carter

70. “The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.”

— Jimmy Carter

71. “Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.”

— Jimmy Carter

72. “Ours is the most wasteful nation on Earth. We waste more energy than we import. With about the same standard of living, we use twice as much energy per person as do other countries like Germany, Japan, and Sweden.”

— Jimmy Carter

73. “War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”

— Jimmy Carter

74. “I’ve committed adultery in my heart.”

— Jimmy Carter

75. “Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring.”

— Jimmy Carter

76. “I am not here as a public official, but as a citizen of a troubled world who finds hope in a growing consensus that the generally accepted goals of society are peace, freedom, human rights, environmental quality, the alleviation of suffering, and the rule of law.”

— Jimmy Carter

77. “It’s a terrible and tragic and counterproductive policy to avoid communicating with people who disagree with us.”

— Jimmy Carter

78. “The pre-eminent obstacle to peace is Israel’s colonization of Palestine.”

— Jimmy Carter

79. “I have a very real political awareness that at least on a transient basis the more drastic action taken by the president, the more popular it is.”

— Jimmy Carter

80. “Our values are not luxuries, but necessities. They are not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.”

— Jimmy Carter

81. “You just have to have a simple faith.”

— Jimmy Carter

82. “It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.”

— Jimmy Carter

83. “There was promulgation of false propaganda by the administration about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There was promulgation of false propaganda about Iraq as a base for Al Qaeda.”

— Jimmy Carter

84. “We cannot change the history of the past.”

— Jimmy Carter

85. “Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”

— Jimmy Carter

86. “I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.”

— Jimmy Carter

87. “This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.”

— Jimmy Carter

88. “Nearly all inmates are drawn from the ranks of the powerless and the poor. A child of privilege frequently receives the benefit of the doubt; a child of poverty seldom does.”

— Jimmy Carter

89. “I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.”

— Jimmy Carter

90. “Wherever life takes us, there are always moments of wonder.”

— Jimmy Carter

91. “People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.”

— Jimmy Carter

92. “I look forward to these confrontations with the press to kind of balance up the nice and pleasant things that come to me as president.”

— Jimmy Carter

93. “I think there ought to be a strict separation or wall built between our religious faith and our practice of political authority in office. I don’t think the President of the United States should extoll Christianity if he happens to be a Christian at the expense of Judaism, Islam or other faiths.”

— Jimmy Carter

94. “Many of the most highly publicized events of my presidency are not nearly as memorable or significant in my life as fishing with my daddy.”

— Jimmy Carter

95. “No matter where you go in the world in any country in Africa or Latin America and other place, you will find that China is very deeply involved in the affairs of that country.”

— Jimmy Carter

96. “Hubert Horatio Hornblower...”

— Jimmy Carter

97. “I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can’t get my wife to go swimming.”

— Jimmy Carter

98. “For the first time in the history of our country the majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years.”

— Jimmy Carter

99. “I’ll never tell a lie. I’ll never make a misleading statement. I’ll never betray the confidence that any of you had in me. And I’ll never avoid a controversial issue.”

— Jimmy Carter

100. “History teaches, perhaps, very few clear lessons. But surely one such lesson learned by the world at great cost is that aggression, unopposed, becomes a contagious disease.”

— Jimmy Carter