I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.
Richard M. Nixon
The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.
Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.
A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.
People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I earned everything I've got.
Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.
Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.
You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.
Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.
The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.
If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.
People react to fear, not love; they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.
The Cold War isn't thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn't sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.
Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.
Don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects.
You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates.
Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.
The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.
If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.
Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation.
I gave 'em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing.
We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.
No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.
If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything.
The press is the enemy.
In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.
I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.
When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal.
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.
I don't know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports.
I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business.
Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.
Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.
Life isn't meant to be easy. It's hard to take being on the top - or on the bottom. I guess I'm something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things... Life is one crisis after another.
I see the face of a child. He lives in a great city. He is black. Or he is white. He is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None of that matters. What matters, he's an American child.
Solutions are not the answer.
Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.
You've got to learn to survive a defeat. That's when you develop character.
We must always remember that America is a great nation today not because of what government did for people but because of what people did for themselves and for one another.
There will be no whitewash in the White House.
Let us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.
Well, I screwed it up real good, didn't I?
What starts the process, really, are laughs and slights and snubs when you are a kid. If your anger is deep enough and strong enough, you learn that you can change those attitudes by excellence, personal gut performance.
Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.
Let us build bridges, my friends, build bridges to human dignity across that gulf that separates black America from white America.
I can see clearly now... that I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate.
The memory of that scene for me is like a frame of film forever frozen at that moment: the red carpet, the green lawn, the white house, the leaden sky. The new president and his first lady.
It's a piece of cake until you get to the top. You find you can't stop playing the game the way you've always played it.
It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody.
Under the doctrine of separation of powers, the manner in which the president personally exercises his assigned executive powers is not subject to questioning by another branch of government.
