Presidential Words to Live By

Presidents

Day was this week, so in honor of all the presidents we've had we give you a few of their profound (or not so profound) thoughts. Most of us occasion­ally say something interesting, but when you're president just about everything you say gets written down, including some things that are witty and thoughtful and others that are silly or strange. Here goes:

Few men have virtue to withstand the high­est bidder.

~ George Washington

Do not bite at the bait of pleasure 'til youknow there is no hook beneath it.

~ Thomas Jefferson

A little flattery will support a man throughgreat fatigue.

~ James Monroe

It is easier to do a job right than to explainwhy you didn't.

~ Martin Van Buren

With me it is exceptionally true that thePresidency is no bed of roses.

~ James Knox Polk

An honorable defeat is better than a dishon­orable victory.

~ Millard Fillmore

Better to remain silent and be thought a foolthan to speak out and remove all doubt.

~ Abraham Lincoln

If the rabble were lopped off at one end andthe aristocrat at the other, all would be wellwith the country.

~ Andrew Johnson

I know no method to secure the repeal of bador obnoxious laws so effective as their stringentexecution.

~ Ulysses S. Grant

Nothing brings out the lower traits of humannature like office seeking.

~ Rutherford B. Hayes

I have had many troubles in my life, but theworst of them never came.

~ James A. Garfield

If it were not for the reporters, I would tellyou the truth.

~ Chester A. Arthur

Whenever you are asked if you can do a job,tell 'em, 'Certainly I can!' Then get busy andfind out how to do it.

~ Theodore Roosevelt

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

~ William Howard Taft

If you want to make enemies, try to changesomething.

~ Woodrow Wilson

I have never been hurt by anything I didn't say.

~ Calvin Coolidge

Repetition does not transform a lie into atruth.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

You cannot stop the spread of an idea bypassing a law against it.

~ Harry S. Truman

Farming looks mighty easy when your plowis a pencil, and you're a thousand miles fromthe corn field.

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

Forgive your enemies, but never forget theirnames.

~ John F. Kennedy

You ain't learnin' nothin' when you'retalkin'.

~ Lyndon B. Johnson

I like the job I have, but if I had to live mylife over again, I would like to have ended up asports writer.

~ Richard M. Nixon

To sit back hoping that someday, someway,someone will make things right is to go onfeeding the crocodile, hoping he will eat youlast--but eat you he will.

~ Ronald Reagan