Top 300 Jimmy Carter Quotes (2025 Update)
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251. “During the 1960s, we used twice as much oil as during the 1950s. And in each of those decades, more oil was consumed than in all of mankind’s previous history.”

— Jimmy Carter

252. “There needs to be a similar degree of flexibility and generosity in the recognition of the humaneness and worth of people who we generally consider as adversaries.”

— Jimmy Carter

253. “The government ought to stay out of the prayer business.”

— Jimmy Carter

254. “It’s very difficult for the American people to believe that our government, one of the richest on Earth, is also one of the stingiest on Earth.”

— Jimmy Carter

255. “I don’t claim to be knowledgeable about theology. Most of my knowledge comes out of my experience and the lessons in the Bible. Every Sunday I’m home I teach 45 minutes and we boiled them down to one page for the new book, ‘Through the Year with Jimmy Carter.’”

— Jimmy Carter

256. “I think I was identified as a failed president because I wasn’t re-elected.”

— Jimmy Carter

257. “Quite often, the people who do leave their own nation and come to an unknown destination, like the United States, are inherently adventurous, so we’ve had that adventurous spirit that has embedded itself collectively in the American consciousness.”

— Jimmy Carter

258. “Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.”

— Jimmy Carter

259. “One of our nation’s greatest leaders of all time was Hubert Horatio Hornblower.”

— Jimmy Carter

260. “Unfortunately, every American citizen takes the same position that we don’t like negative advertisements. But they work! And, as you see, many a candidate has prevailed by tearing down the reputation of an opponent in a more advantageous position.”

— Jimmy Carter

261. “I officially designated every US ambassador on earth to be my personal human rights representative, and to have the embassy be a haven for people who suffered from abuse by their own government.”

— Jimmy Carter

262. “There’s no doubt that usually a president’s public image is enhanced by going to war. That never did appeal to me.”

— Jimmy Carter

263. “Our laws were not designed to accommodate three or four thousand refugees coming here per day. Our laws were designed for people to be screened in a foreign country, carefully catalogued, and brought here a few at a time. This just didn’t happen.”

— Jimmy Carter

264. “My life since the White House has been much more all-encompassing, much more enjoyable. The main thing that I’ve acquired has been access to the poorest and most destitute, forgotten, and suffering people on Earth. It’s not possible for a President to actually know them.”

— Jimmy Carter

265. “I would say the biggest handicap we have right now is some nutcases in our country that don’t believe in global warming. I think they are going to change their position because of pressure from individuals, because the evidence of the ravages of global warming is already there.”

— Jimmy Carter

266. “I thought then, and I think now, that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false.”

— Jimmy Carter

267. “And I think the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world.”

— Jimmy Carter

268. “We consider these settlements to be contrary to the Geneva Convention, that occupied territory should not be changed by establishment of permanent settlements by the occupying power.”

— Jimmy Carter

269. “Those who start war often know that because of their high political position their own lives will not be in danger. on the Diane Rehm Show.”

— Jimmy Carter

270. “My constant prayer, my number one foreign goal, is to bring peace to Israel. And in the process to Israel’s neighbours.”

— Jimmy Carter

271. “The President publicly apologized today to all those offended by his brother’s remark, There’s more Arabs in this country than there is Jews! Those offended include Arabs, Jews, and English teachers.”

— Jimmy Carter

272. “In the United States, you might say every county has got its own separate system. There’s not even one kind of ballot that you use all over the United States. We require that in a foreign country.”

— Jimmy Carter

273. “I can’t really criticize the Tea Party people, because I came into the White House pretty much on the same basis that they have become popular. That is dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Washington and disillusionment and disencouragement about the government.”

— Jimmy Carter

274. “I don’t think the Tea Party people are racist, except maybe a tiny portion of them. But there has been a deliberate effort – again, referring to Fox Broadcasting – to inject the race issue into it. They have actually called Obama a racist on television.”

— Jimmy Carter

275. “I think all of us could insist on preserving the truth and preserving the peace. We could insist that political candidates tell the truth about controversial issues. And secondly, we should be sure to encourage our political leaders, after they’re elected, to preserve the peace.”

— Jimmy Carter

276. “To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.”

— Jimmy Carter

277. “I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American.”

— Jimmy Carter

278. “We have been involved in more wars, on a bilateral basis, since the United Nations was formed than any other country by far.”

— Jimmy Carter

279. “The Carter Center has a policy of doing what others do not want to do. We do not compete with the World Health Organization, the United Nations or the US government.”

— Jimmy Carter

280. “Ours was the first nation to be founded on the idea that all are created equal and all deserve equal treatment under the law. Despite our missteps and shortcomings, these ideals still inspire hope among the oppressed and give us pride in being Americans.”

— Jimmy Carter

281. “I see a lot of parallels between my candidacy and the Tea Party. I would not have been elected had there not been a tremendous amount of dissatisfaction and discouragement and disgust with what was going on in Washington.”

— Jimmy Carter

282. “We only have to recall the color of the faces of those who were most devastated by Katrina, to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans.”

— Jimmy Carter

283. “On the basis of both values and interests, the natural relationship between Islam and the United States is one of friendship.”

— Jimmy Carter

284. “Building confidence and constructive relations between Sudan and South Sudan is urgent.”

— Jimmy Carter

285. “Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton.”

— Jimmy Carter

286. “We cannot speak of human rights in other countries unless we are going to do our utmost to protect the rights of our own people here at home.”

— Jimmy Carter

287. “The government and the church are two different realms of service, and those in political office have to face a subtle but important difference between the implementation of the high ideals of religious faith and public duty.”

— Jimmy Carter

288. “Always I’m working on some of book. That’s the way I make a living.”

— Jimmy Carter

289. “Although military, economic and political strength certainly favors the more powerful side, the matter of simple justice is a counterbalancing factor.”

— Jimmy Carter

290. “From the beginning, the United States has enjoyed close and valued ties with the Muslim world.”

— Jimmy Carter

291. “Within the stable economy it’s necessary to eliminate all forms of sexual discrimination, and to provide women for the first time in our history with economic opportunities equal to those of men.”

— Jimmy Carter

292. “Each one of us is an individual, just like talk show hosts are different from one another, and newspaper columnists are different from each other. So, former presidents are different from each other, too. Some have gone into relative seclusion. Some have decided to teach.”

— Jimmy Carter

293. “I believe strongly that in the eyes of God women and men should be the same and they should be given the same authority in the church, women should as men.”

— Jimmy Carter

294. “There is a strong religious commitment to the sanctity of human life, but, paradoxically, some of the most fervent protectors of microscopic stem cells are the most ardent proponents of the death penalty.”

— Jimmy Carter

295. “When people first vote for democracy, they have extremely high hopes, excessive expectations, and they’re not realized. They don’t instantly get richer and the schools don’t instantly get better and the garbage isn’t instantly picked up quicker. So they get disillusioned.”

— Jimmy Carter

296. “After all these years, I still feel like a boy when I’m on a stream.”

— Jimmy Carter

297. “It is generally not known in the world that, in the years preceding 1916, there was a concerted effort made to eliminate all the Armenian people, probably one of the greatest tragedies that ever befell any group. And there weren’t any Nuremberg trials.”

— Jimmy Carter

298. “In retrospect, I can see that President Brezhnev was quite proud of the limited agreement that he had concluded in Vladivostok; and to have a new American president come in and say, “That is not good enough – let’s do much more, and do it quite rapidly,” took him by surprise.”

— Jimmy Carter

299. “Our Center would be nonpartisan; we would be as innovative as possible, not duplicating or competing with other organizations that were addressing issues successfully; we would not be afraid of possible failure if our goals were worthwhile; and we would operate always with a balanced budget. The.”

— Jimmy Carter

300. “I think the only way that political system can be corrected is for the American people to see very vividly that it needs repair. If things are going to worse in the future, the American people, in every congressional district in the land, might demand that reforms take place in the political system.”

— Jimmy Carter