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Richard Milhous Nixon

vice president under Eisenhower and 37th President of the United States; resigned after the Watergate scandal in 1974 (1913-1994)

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'Good luck, Mr President,' I said to him. 'As I told you when I named you, I know the country is going to be in good hands with you in the Oval Office.'

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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A man is not finished when he's defeated he's finished when he quits.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don't care what they say, they like it.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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. (On the Vietnam War)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Because of what you have done the heavens have become a part of man's world. And as you talk to us from the Sea of Tranquillity, it inspires us to redouble our efforts to bring peace and Tranquillity to Earth. For one priceless moment, in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one. One in their pride in what you have done. One in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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By taking this action, I hope that I will have hastened the start of the healing.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Get a good night's sleep and don't bug anybody without asking me. (To re-election campaign manager Clark MacGregor)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I believe in the battle-whether it's the battle of a campaign or the battle of this office, which is a continuing battle.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I brought myself down. I impeached myself by resigning.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I concede

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I had never expected that the China initiative would come to fruition in the form of a Ping-Pong team. (On first friendly overture by People's Republic of China)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I have impeached myself by resigning.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I hereby resign this office of president of the United States.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I let the American people down.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I took a look around the office. ... I walked out and closed the door behind me. I knew that I would not be back there again. (On leaving the Executive Office Building)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I turned into the helicopter ... the red carpet was rolled up. ... The White House was behind us now.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I want you to stonewall it. (To staff on news of break-in at Watergate)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I wouldn't bet the farm on it, but I'd bet the main house. I wouldn't even bet the outhouse on Mondale.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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I'd rather use the nuclear bomb...Does that bother you I just want you to think big, Henry, for Christ's sake. to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on escalating the Vietnam War

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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If I were to make public these tapes, containing blunt and candid remarks on many different subjects, the confidentiality of the office of the president would always be suspect.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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If we take the route of the permanent handout, the American character will itself be impoverished. (Proposal to reform welfare programs)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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It is not too strong a statement to declare that this is the way civilizations begin to die ... None of us has the right to suppose it cannot happen here.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Look at the Justice Department, it's full of Jews...The lawyers in government are damn Jews.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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My concern today is not with the length of a person's hair but with his conduct. (On campus radicals)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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My own view is that taping of conversations for historical purposes was a bad decision on the part of all the presidents. I don't think Kennedy should have done it. I don't think Johnson should have done it, and I don't think we should have done it.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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My strong point is not rhetoric, it isn't showmanship, it isn't big promises-those things that create the glamour and the excitement that people call charisma and warmth.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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My strong point, if I have a strong point, is performance. I always do more than I say. I always produce more than I promise.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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My telephone calls and meetings and decisions were now parts of a prescribed ritual aimed at making peace with the past his calls, his meetings and his decisions were already the ones that would shape America's future. (On transfer of power to Gerald R Ford)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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My view is that one should not break up a winning combination.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Rarely have so many people been so wrong about so much.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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So you are lean and mean and resourceful and you continue to walk on the edge of the precipice because over the years you have become fascinated by how close you can walk without losing your balance.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Success is not a harbor but a voyage with its own perils to the spirit The lesson that most of us on this voyage never learn, but can never quite forget, is that to win is sometimes to lose.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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The 1976 Bicentennial is not going to be invented in Washington, printed in triplicate by the Government Printing Office and mailed to you by the United States Postal Service.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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The antiwar movement is a wild orgasm of anarchists sweeping across the country like a prairie fire.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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The game of life is to come up a winner, to be a success, or to achieve what we set out to do. Yet there is always the danger of failing as a human being.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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The greatness comes not when things go always good for you. But the greatness comes when you're really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes. Because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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The student who invades an administration building, roughs up a dean, rifles the files and issues 'non-negotiable demands' may have some of his demands met by a permissive university administration. But the greater his 'victory' the more he will have undermined the security of his own rights.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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There are some people, you know, they think the way to be a big man is to shout and stomp and raise hell-and then nothing ever really happens. I'm not like that ... I never shoot blanks.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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There is a time to be timid. There is a time to be conciliatory. There is a time, even, to fly and there is a time to fight. And I'm going to fight like hell. (On Congressional moves toward impeachment)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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There will be no whitewash in the White House. (On Watergate investigation)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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This is a burden I shall bear for every day of the life that is left to me.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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This is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation. (Saluting crew of the Apollo 11)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Tonight-to you, the great silent majority of my fellow Americans-I ask for your support. (On his Vietnam War policy)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Violence or the threat of violence must never be permitted to influence the actions or judgments of the university community. Once it does, the community, almost by definition, ceases to be a university. It is for this reason that from time immemorial expulsion has been the primary instrument of university discipline.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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We are all in it together. This is a war. We take a few shots and it will be over. We will give them a few shots and it will be over.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Well, I'm not a crook.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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When I retire I'm going to spend my evenings by the fireplace going through those boxes. There are things in there that ought to be burned.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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While technically I did not commit a crime, an impeachable offense... these are legalisms, as far as the handling of this matter is concerned it was so botched up, I made so many bad judgments. The worst ones, mistakes of the heart, rather than the head. But let me say, a man in that top job - he's got to have a heart, but his head must always rule his heart.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Who are you going to shoot joking with Attorney General Richard Kleindienst about creating an opening on the Supreme court

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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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.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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You see these bums, you know, blowing up campuses ... storming around about this issue. (On student protesters against Vietnam War)

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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You're so goddamned concerned about the civilians, and I don't give a damn. to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on civilian casualties in Vietnam

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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Your mind must always go, even while you're shaking hands and going through all the maneuvers. I developed the ability long ago to do one thing while thinking about another.

– Richard Milhous Nixon

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