Quotes by Richard M. Nixon

"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."

"Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion."

"I played by the rules of politics as I found them."

"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."

"Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too."

"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."

"Politics would be a helluva good business if it weren't for the goddamned people."

"Once you get into this great stream of history, you can't get out."

"The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker."

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

"I don't think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction."

"It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody."

"I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get."

"I've analyzed the best I can... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course."

"Americans admire a people who can scratch a desert and produce a garden. The Israelis have shown qualities that Americans identify with: guts, patriotism, idealism, a passion for freedom. I have seen it. I know. I believe that."

"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."

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

"Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist."

"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."

"Don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects."

"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 reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business."

"By the time you get dressed, drive out there, play 18 holes and come home, you've blown seven hours. There are better things you can do with your time."

"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."

"As this long and difficult war ends, I would like to address a few special words to the American people: Your steadfastness in supporting our insistence on peace with honor has made peace with honor possible."

"People react to fear, not love they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true."

"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."

"I can see clearly now... that I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate."

"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."

"If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together."

"In the television age, the key distinction is between the candidate who can speak poetry and the one who can only speak prose."

"I don't know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports."

"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."

"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."