Top 133 Quotes & Sayings by William Howard Taft

A system in which we may have an enforced rest from legislation for two years is not bad.

We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.

I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God.

Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.

Action for which I become responsible, or for which my administration becomes responsible, shall be within the law.

I do not know much about politics, but I am trying to do the best I can with this administration until the time shall come for me to turn it over to somebody else.

I'll be damned if I am not getting tired of this. It seems to be the profession of a President simply to hear other people talk.

Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.

I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.

The world is not going to be saved by legislation.

I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town.

I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade with each becomes more valuable to the other.

Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies.

We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.

The day is not far distant when three Stars and Stripes at three equidistant points will mark our territory: one at the North Pole, another at the Panama Canal, and the third at the South Pole. The whole hemisphere will be ours in fact as, by virtue of our superiority of race, it already is ours morally.

Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.

Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.

Failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done is a great weakness in any man.

I think I might as well give up being a candidate. There are so many people in the country who don't like me.

A government is for the benefit of all the people.

I am afraid I am a constant disappointment to my party. The fact of the matter is, the longer I am president the less of a party man I seem to become.

As the Republican platforms says, the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country.

Politics makes me sick.

No, the only things which do not bother me are the elements. I can overcome them without a fight. All one has to do to get the best of the elements is to stand pat and one will win.

No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much.

If this humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.

Don't worry over what the newspapers say. I don't. Why should anyone else? I told the truth to the newspaper correspondents - but when you tell the truth to them they are at sea.

I am president now, and tired of being kicked around.

The true Mason never hesitates to use the working tools to correct personal flaws.

We are all dependent upon the investment of capital.

The real secrets of Masonry are never told, not even from mouth to ear. For the real secret of Masonry is spoken to your heart and from it to the heart of your brother. Never the language made for tongue may speak it, it is uttered only in the eye in those manifestations of that love which a man has for his friend, which passeth all other loves.

The true Mason takes full responsibility for the condition of his character and ever strives for its perfection.

We can't have a decent government unless those in power exercise self restraint.

I think it is a wise course for laborers to unite to defend their interests.... I think the employer who declines to deal with organized labor and to recognize it as a proper element in the settlement of wage controversies is behind the times.... Of course, when organized labor permits itself to sympathize with violent methods or undue duress, it is not entitled to our sympathy.

I don't know whither we are drifting, but I do know where every real thinking patriot will stand in the end, and that's by the Constitution.

Politics make me sick

Unless education promotes character making, unless it helps men to be more moral, more just to their fellows, more law abiding, more discriminatingly patriotic and public spirited, it is not worth the trouble taken to furnish it.

The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power in the Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined residuum of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest.

The secret of Masonry, like the secret of life, can be known only by those who seek it, serve it, live it. It cannot be uttered; it can only be felt and acted. It is, in fact, an open secret, and each man knows it according to his quest and capacity. Like all things worth knowing, no one can know it for another and no man can know it alone.

The man with the average mentality, but with control, with a definite goal, and a clear conception of how it can be gained, and above all, with the power of application and labor, wins in the end.

When the history of this period is written, [William Jennings] Bryan will stand out as one of the most remarkable men of his generation and one of the biggest political men of our country.

We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.

I know how irritating it is to have somebody else lay down rules for your moral uplift, but you've got to stand a great deal in order to make progress.

One cannot always be sure of the truth of what one hears if he happens to be President of the United States.

Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.

Well, I have one consolation. No candidate was ever elected ex-president by such a large majority!

Golf in the interest of good health and good manners. It promotes self-restraint and affords a chance to play the man and act the gentleman.

We passed the Children's Bureau bill calculated to prevent children from being employed too early in factories.

Repeat mantra: Donuts are not vitamins, donuts are not.

If they will play fair I will play fair, but if they won't then I reserve all my rights to do anything I find myself able to do.

The cheerful loser is a sort of winner.

Anyone who has taken the oath I have just taken must feel a heavy weight of responsibility. If not, he has no conception of the powers and duties of the office.

The true Mason is ever vigilant for subtle traces of character and personality flaws which daily experience brings out.

The study of Freemasonry is the study of man as a candidate for a blessed eternity. It furnishes examples of holy living, and displays the conduct which is pleasing and acceptable to God. The doctrines and examples which distinguish the Order are obvious, and suited to every capacity. It is impossible for the most fastidious Mason to misunderstand, however he might slight or neglect them. It is impossible for the most superficial brother to say that he is unable to comprehend the plain precepts and the unanswerable arguments which are furnished by Freemasonry.

The City that knows how.

Too many people don't care what happens so long as it doesn't happen to them.

Politics, when I am in it, makes me sick.

As a people, we have the problem of making our forests outlast this generation, or iron outlast this century, and our coal the next; not merely as a matter of convenience or comfort, but as a matter of stern necessity.