You know I vowed when I became President not to talk about the loneliest toughest job in the world and I didn’t.
George H. W. BushI wish I could say to all those people who consider themselves anarchists or radicals: Please join the nonviolent movement. This is how Gandhi freed India. If Gandhi freed India, we can certainly free the United States from our racism, misogyny, and bigotry.
Dolores HuertaMy favourite president, and the one I admired most, was Harry Truman.
Jimmy CarterThat’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.
Barack ObamaListen, I think that people want a president who is going to be interested in the things that keep them up at night, the things that are weighing on them, the things that are debilitating and can be addressed.
Kamala HarrisWell, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?
Dwight D. EisenhowerAnti-Semitism is real in this country.
Kamala HarrisThe object is very clear in the fight against racism; you have reasons why you’re opposed to it. But when you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that.
Margaret AtwoodA man without a vote is man without protection.
Lyndon B. JohnsonIt may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important.
Martin Luther King, Jr.Since I’m the president and Democrats have controlled the House and the Senate, it’s understandable that people are saying, you know, ‚What have you done?‘
Barack ObamaI have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid.
Desmond TutuThis election is about who’s going to be the next President of the United States!
Dan QuayleThis President is going to lead us out of this recovery.
Dan QuayleI would put our legislative and foreign policy accomplishments in our first two years against any president – with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR, and Lincoln – just in terms of what we’ve gotten done in modern history. But, you know, but when it comes to the economy, we’ve got a lot more work to do. And we’re gonna keep on at it.
Barack ObamaIn 2008, I spoke out against calling the president a Muslim as if that was a curse. And then in 2012, once again, I was very disturbed about some of the intolerance I was seeing in the party, so I made a statement saying there’s a level of intolerance in some parts of the Republican Party. And there was, and I think there still is.
Colin PowellWhen I joined the freedom movement in Mississippi in my early 20s, it was to come to the aid of sharecroppers, like my parents, who had been thrown off the land they’d always known – the plantations – because they attempted to exercise their ‚democratic‘ right to vote.
Alice WalkerThere was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools and she was bused to school every day. That little girl was me.
Kamala HarrisOhio claims they are due a president as they haven’t had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln.
Will RogersIf I hadn’t been President of the United States, I probably would have ended up a piano player in a bawdy house.
Harry S. TrumanThe Marine Corps is the Navy’s police force and as long as I am President that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin’s.
Harry S. TrumanThe power of the white world is threatened whenever a black man refuses to accept the white world’s definitions.
James BaldwinIn a democracy, in a functioning democracy, what would be happening is that popular organizations, unions, political groupings, others would be developing their programs, putting them forth, insisting that their representatives implement those programs.
Noam ChomskyThe American people are bigger than any president. I suppose I have faith in my country and in what it is founded on and the values we hold dear.
Angelina JolieWell, I was 29 years old when I came to the United States Senate, and I have learned a lot.
Joe BidenUnfortunately, the people of Louisiana are not racists.
Dan QuayleI’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.
Jimmy CarterIf you have always believed that everyone should play by the same rules and be judged by the same standards, that would have gotten you labeled a radical 60 years ago, a liberal 30 years ago and a racist today.
Thomas SowellI had a soft-spot in my heart for Ronald Reagan, if only because he was a sportswriter in his youth.
Hunter S. ThompsonNo intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters.
Muhammad AliI was the first tenured woman at Columbia. That was 1972; every law school was looking for its woman. Why? Because Stan Pottinger, who was then head of the office for civil rights of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, was enforcing the Nixon government contract program.
Ruth Bader GinsburgI never had that feeling that I had to carry the weight of somebody’s ignorance around with me. And that was true for racists who wanted to use the ‚n‘ word when talking about me or about my people, or the stupidity of people who really wanted to belittle other folks because they weren’t pretty or they weren’t rich or they weren’t clever.
Maya AngelouThere are some members of the House leadership whose only mission in life is to demonize the president.
John KennedyYou 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. NixonI should like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Independence, which declares that all men are equal upon principle, you begin making exceptions to it, where will you stop? If one man says it does not mean a Negro, why not another say it does not mean some other man?
Abraham LincolnJesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things – he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.
Jimmy CarterTrump just looks stupid trying to appeal to blacks and Latinos.
Colin PowellA calling is you feel – you look out and see the need – maybe it’s the need for the poor, to help poor people. Maybe it’s the need to get involved in the race problem, as Martin Luther King was – felt called.
Billy GrahamWhen you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.
Harry S. TrumanThe black press, some liberal sportswriters, and even a few politicians were banging away at those Jim Crow barriers in baseball. I never expected the walls to come tumbling down in my lifetime.
Jackie RobinsonI 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 CarterI 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 CarterThere’s always an element of self delusion among people who believe they ought to be President. There’s an underestimation of your opponent and an overestimation of your own abilities. This is compatible with being rich and powerful, the idea that we were blessed by God because we deserve to be blessed.
Jimmy CarterAs president, I’m committed to making Washington work better and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here.
Barack ObamaYou should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do, especially in Philadelphia in 1787, four months, they argued about what a House should be, what a Senate should be, the power of the president, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.
Colin PowellI have decided in 2020 to run for president.
Kanye WestI kept a very full diary of my relationship with Nixon, for some strange reason, until he became president.
Billy GrahamI know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin‘ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.
Muhammad AliHillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be Vice President of the United States of America. Let’s get that straight. She’s a truly close personal friend. She is qualified to be President of the United States of America. She’s easily qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America.
Joe BidenSometimes I feel like rap music is almost the key to stopping racism.
EminemRemember, it is not about voting for the perfect candidate – there is no such thing. Presidents are human.
Michelle ObamaAbout all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.
Will RogersNo one has been barred on account of his race from fighting or dying for America, there are no white or colored signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.
John F. KennedyI think I’d be a better president because I was in combat.
George H. W. BushThe President is going to benefit from me reporting directly to him when I arrive.
Dan QuayleThe man with the best job in the country is the vice-president. All he has to do is get up every morning and say, ‚How is the president?‘
Will RogersIn my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.
Harry S. TrumanSome years ago I became president of Columbia University and learned within 24 hours to be ready to speak at the drop of a hat, and I learned something more, the trustees were expected to be ready to speak at the passing of the hat.
Dwight D. EisenhowerLook, when you’re the president, there’s all kinds of things said about us. I mean, it’s just the nature of the job.
George W. BushI cannot salute the flag; I know that I am a black man in a white world. In 1972, in 1947, at my birth in 1919, I know that I never had it made.
Jackie Robinson