Top 300 Richard M. Nixon Quotes (2023 Update)
Page 6 of 7

251. “Reading not only enlarges and challenges the mind; it also engages and exercises the brain. Today’s youth who sits mesmerized by a television screen is not going to be tomorrow’s leader. Television watching is passive. Reading is active.”

— Richard M. Nixon

252. “The one thing sure about politics is that what goes up comes down and what goes down often comes up.”

— Richard M. Nixon

253. “I’d like to see people, instead of spending so much time on the ethical problem, get after the problems that really affect the people of this country.”

— Richard M. Nixon

254. “The student who invades an administration building, roughs up a dean, rifles the files and issues ‘non-negotiable demands’ may have some of his demands met by a permissive university administration. But the greater his ‘victory’ the more he will have undermined the security of his own rights.”

— Richard M. Nixon

255. “The true idealist pursues what his heart says is right in a way that his head says will work.”

— Richard M. Nixon

256. “Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don’t care what they say, they like it.”

— Richard M. Nixon

257. “We do not learn by inference and deduction and the application of mathematics to philosophy, but by direct intercourse and sympathy.”

— Richard M. Nixon

258. “Any culture which can put a man on the Moon is capable of gathering all the nations of the earth in peace, justice and concord.”

— Richard M. Nixon

259. “I knew if I continued to look around it would be difficult for me to contain my own emotions. So I turned away from the red eyes of the crowd and looked only at the red eye of the camera, talking to all the nation.”

— Richard M. Nixon

260. “I think Congress has spent enough time on ethics. I think it’s time they moved on to something else.”

— Richard M. Nixon

261. “The worst thing a politician can be is dull. At least I’m interesting.”

— Richard M. Nixon

262. “The only time in the history of the world that we have had any extended periods of peace is when there has been a balance of power. It is when one nation becomes infinitely more powerful in relation to its potential competitors that the danger of war arises.”

— Richard M. Nixon

263. “It I talked about Watergate, I was described as struggling to free myself from the morass. If I did not talk about Watergate, I was accused of being out of touch with reality.”

— Richard M. Nixon

264. “I let the American people down.”

— Richard M. Nixon

265. “A public man must never forget that he loses his usefulness when he as an individual, rather than his policy, becomes the issue.”

— Richard M. Nixon

266. “If I had my life to live over, I would have liked to have ended up as a sportswriter.”

— Richard M. Nixon

267. “People should not have to pay for pollution they do not cause.”

— Richard M. Nixon

268. “Once one determines that he or she has a mission in life, that’s it’s not...”

— Richard M. Nixon

269. “The people’s right to change what does not work is one of the greatest principles in our system of government.”

— Richard M. Nixon

270. “People react to fear, not love; they don’t teach that in Sunday School, but it’s true.”

— Richard M. Nixon

271. “You don’t know how to lie. If you can’t lie, you’ll never go anywhere.”

— Richard M. Nixon

272. “I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana, I mean one that just tears the ass out of them. You know, its a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish.”

— Richard M. Nixon

273. “My gravest secret is that I really did fake the moon landing. On Venus!”

— Richard M. Nixon

274. “Always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty.”

— Richard M. Nixon

275. “I was under medication when I made the decision to burn the tapes.”

— Richard M. Nixon

276. “Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.”

— Richard M. Nixon

277. “The communists have lost the cold war, but the west has not yet won it.”

— Richard M. Nixon

278. “No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.”

— Richard M. Nixon

279. “If, when the chips are down, the worlds most powerful nation, the United States of America, acts like a pitiful, helpless giant, the forces of totalitarianism and anarchy will threaten free nations and free institutions throughout the world.”

— Richard M. Nixon

280. “The bastards have never been bombed like they’re going to be bombed this time.”

— Richard M. Nixon

281. “You must never give up. You must remember that you have to take risks in order to achieve anything and sometimes you will suffer defeat. But the mark of any individual is to recover from defeat and disappointment and go on and give it his best shot.”

— Richard M. Nixon

282. “I’m not at liberty to discuss the governments knowledge of extraterrestrial UFO’s at this time. I am still personally being briefed on the subject!”

— Richard M. Nixon

283. “Television is to news as bumperstickers are to philosophy.”

— Richard M. Nixon

284. “It is essential that we take steps to prevent chemical substances from becoming environmental hazards. Unless we develop better methods to assure adequate testing of chemicals, we will be inviting the environmental crisis of the future.”

— Richard M. Nixon

285. “Castro couldn’t even go to the bathroom unless the Soviet Union put the nickel in the toilet.”

— Richard M. Nixon

286. “Those few days after Kent State were among the darkest of my presidency.”

— Richard M. Nixon

287. “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.”

— Richard M. Nixon

288. “The language of politics is poetry, not prose. Jackson is poetry. Cuomo is poetry. Dukakis is a word processor.”

— Richard M. Nixon

289. “Economic power is not the same as strength of national character. Our country may be rich in goods, but we are poor in spirit.”

— Richard M. Nixon

290. “Unpredictability is the greatest asset a leader can have.”

— Richard M. Nixon

291. “I had never expected that the China initiative would come to fruition in the form of a Ping-Pong team.”

— Richard M. Nixon

292. “I also believe that academic freedom should protect the right of a professor or student to advocate Marxism, socialism, communism, or any other minority viewpoint – no matter how distasteful to the majority, provided...”

— Richard M. Nixon

293. “There will be no whitewash in the White House.”

— Richard M. Nixon

294. “The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.”

— Richard M. Nixon

295. “The press is the enemy.”

— Richard M. Nixon

296. “We must maintain the integrity of the White House, and that integrity must be real, not transparent. There can be no whitewash at the White House.”

— Richard M. Nixon

297. “Now that all the members of the press are so delighted I lost, I’d like to make a statement. As I leave you I want you to know -just think how much you’ll be missing. You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.”

— Richard M. Nixon

298. “The lesson of all history warns us that we should negotiate only when our military superiority is so convincing that we can achieve our objective at the conference table, and deny the aggressor theirs.”

— Richard M. Nixon

299. “I never leave a game before the last pitch, because in baseball, as in life and especially politics, you never know what will happen.”

— Richard M. Nixon

300. “I wish I could give you a lot of advice, based on my experience of winning political debates. But I don’t have that experience. My only experience is at losing them.”

— Richard M. Nixon