The American President

Benjamin Harrison:
I have only a vague memory of my grandfather as I was only a child when he died but I will show all my family's famous name is safe in my keeping.

Benjamin Harrison:
I do the same thing every day. I eat three meals, sleep six hours and read dusty old books the rest of the time. My life is about as devoid of anything funny as the great desert is of grass.

Benjamin Harrison:
I want to avoid everything that is personal and I want it understood that I am grandson of nobody.

Benjamin Harrison:
After the heavy blow of the death of my wife, I do not think that I could have stood re-election.

Benjamin Harrison:
I have often thought that the life of the President is like that of the policeman in the opera, not a happy one.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
I am a juggler and I never let my right hand know what my left hand is doing.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails admit it and try another but above all, try something.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win thorough to absolute victory.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
We are now in this war, all the way, every single one of us. Every man, woman and child is a partner in the most tremendous undertaking in our American history.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt:
I Hate War!

John F. Kennedy:
I was not very not very active in politics at Harvard so I never thought that I would enter a political life.

John F. Kennedy:
I ran for the Vice Presidency in 1956 and after the Democrats lost that election I started thinking about running in 1960.

John F. Kennedy:
If this election is decided on the basis that 40 million Americans lost their chance to be president on the day they were baptized then it is the whole nation that will be the loser.

John F. Kennedy:
I am not the Catholic candidate for president, I am the Democratic party's candidate for president who happens to be a Catholic.

John F. Kennedy:
It is a tremendous change to go from being a senator to being president because your advisors are frequently divided.

John Tyler:
By abhorrent events I was unexpectedly elevated to the presidency. For the first time in our history the person elected to the Vice Presidency had had devolved upon him the office of the Presidency.

John Tyler:
[to his new cabinet who didn't think much of him] I am very glad to have in my cabinet such able statesmen as you but I can never consent to being dictated to as to what I shall and shall not do. I am the President and if you think otherwise your resignation will be accepted.

John Tyler:
From the moment of my assuming the helm my ship was tempest tost. A Vice President who succeeds the presidency in this way has no party at his heels to sustain his nature.

John Tyler:
No one can say that I am not a President with a heart.

John Tyler:
A President elected by the people comes into office as the head triumphant party. Not so however with a Vice President who succeeds by the demise of the President. I had to follow the lights of my own judgment.

Millard Fillmore:
I was called to the executive chair by a bereavement which shrouded the nation in mourning. However much I may be oppressed by the discharge of the duty, I dare not shrink from it.

Millard Fillmore:
[after news of Zachery Taylor's death] I have no language to express the emotions of my heart. The shock is so sudden and unexpected, I am overwhelmed.

Millard Fillmore:
God knows I detest slavery but it is an existing evil and we must endure it and give it such protection as is prescribed by the constitution.

Millard Fillmore:
In the north I was accused of being a pro-slavery man seeking to extend slavery over free territory and in the south I was accused of being an abolishionist. But I am neither.

Millard Fillmore:
I feel no regret that I was relieved of the thankless task of administering this government. The agitation that disturbed the peace of this country was unavoidable.

Andrew Johnson:
This is a country for the white man and by God, as long as I am President, it shall remain a government the white man.

Andrew Johnson:
I speak for the working man regardless of the frowns, tauts and jeers of an upstart aristocracy.

Andrew Johnson:
If you liberate the negro what will be the next step? You can't get rid of the negro except by holding him in slavery.

Andrew Johnson:
[about the Civil War] Let it be a battle of words and not of swords!