Herbert Hoover Quotes

Engineering training deals with the exact sciences. That sort of exactness makes for truth and conscience. It might be good for the world if more men had that sort of mental start in life even if they did not pursue the profession.

A whole people with the ballot in their hands possess the most conclusive and unlimited power ever entrusted to humanity.

Peace can be contributed to by respect for our ability in defense.

The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage.

New discoveries in science will continue to create a thousand new frontiers for those who still would adventure.

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

The United States fully accepts the profound truth that our own progress, prosperity, and peace are interlocked with the progress, prosperity, and peace of all humanity.

I am no supporter of factory labor for children, but I have never joined with those who clamored against proper work of children on farms outside their school hours.

Wisdom oft times consists of knowing what to do next.

With impressive proof on all sides of magnificent progress, no one can rightly deny the fundamental correctness of our economic system.

America – a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.

The engineer performs many public functions from which he gets only philosophical satisfactions. Most people do not know it, but he is an economic and social force.

Those who have a true understanding of America know that we have no desire for territorial expansion, for economic or other domination of other peoples. Such purposes are repugnant to our ideals of human freedom.

While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst, and with continued unity of effort, we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States – that is, prosperity.

The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all can see them. His acts, step by step, are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the grave like the doctors. He cannot argue them into thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers.

The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.

About the time we can make the ends meet, somebody moves the ends.

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

Next to religion, baseball has had a greater impact on our American way of life than any other American institution.

Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body – the producers and consumers themselves.

Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.

Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.

Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.

Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.

All men are equal before fish.

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants.

True liberal government is founded on the emancipation of men.

Free government is the most difficult of all government. But it is everlastingly true that the plain people will make fewer mistakes than any other group of men, no matter how powerful.

Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.

When all the routines and details and the human bores get on our nerves, we just yearn to go away from here to somewhere else. To go fishing is a sound, a valid, and an accepted reason for an escape. It requires no explanation.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

The opportunities of America opened out to me the public schools. They carried me to the professional training of an American university. I began by working with my own hands for my daily bread.

America means far more than a continent bounded by two oceans. It is more than pride of military power, glory in war, or in victory. It means more than vast expanse of farms, of great factories or mines, magnificent cities, or millions of automobiles and radios.

We have not yet reached the goal but… we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation.

Within the soul of America is freedom of mind and spirit in man. Here alone are the open windows through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit. Here alone is human dignity not a dream but an accomplishment. Perhaps it is not perfect, but it is more full in realization here than any other place in the world.

The pause between the errors and trials of the day and the hopes of the night.

Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties, but in the hearts of men.

It is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow… that are the aftermath of war.

Once upon a time my political opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a worldwide depression all by myself.

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.

Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.

The thing I enjoyed most were visits from children. They did not want public office.

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

There is no employing class, no working class, no farming class. You may pigeonhole a man or woman as a farmer or a worker or a professional man or an employer or even a banker. But the son of the farmer will be a doctor or a worker or even a banker, and his daughter a teacher. The son of a worker will be an employer – or maybe president.

Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as knowing what to do next.

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

Let me remind you that credit is the lifeblood of business, the lifeblood of prices and jobs.

Economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.

The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law.

At 15 years of age, I left school to practice the profession of Office Boy in a business firm in Salem, Oregon.

I’m the only person of distinction who has ever had a depression named for him.

No public man can be just a little crooked.

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.

Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury.

Freedom does not die from frontal attack. It dies because men in power no longer believe in a system based upon liberty.

The human animal originally came from out-of-doors. When spring begins to move in his bones, he just must get out again. Moreover, as civilization, cement pavements, office buildings, radios have overwhelmed us, the need for regeneration has increased, and the impulses are even stronger.

A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus.

Freedom conceives that the mind and spirit of man can be free only if he be free to pattern his own life, to develop his own talents, free to earn, to spend, to save, to acquire property as the security of his old age and his family.