# Most Famous Quotes of the Presidents **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 26, 2013, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385 "2013-01-26T01:06:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/101 "2013-04-02T06:00:55Z")
> [@morgensd](#): > > This gets my vote as well. > > “I am a jelly donut” > > Kinda sings doesn’t it. > > morgensd Urban legend: [Did John F. Kennedy Proclaim Himself to Be a Jelly Doughnut? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/language/misxlate/berliner.asp) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/102 "2013-04-02T14:23:39Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > LBJ: “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” > [@bup](#): > > I’ve googled that, and can only find it on sites I don’t trust. Do you have a good source for it? I went through five pages of hits and didn’t find any that weren’t from right-wing blogs. I suppose it would be censored if published in a reputable source, so that might be why. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > The business of America is business. - Calvin Coolidge Always wondered who said that first. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/103 "2013-04-02T15:54:24Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I went through five pages of hits and didn’t find any that weren’t from right-wing blogs. I suppose it would be censored if published in a reputable source, so that might be why. Searching on just the remainder of the phrase and “Johnson” still yields no reputable sources. Ergo, you didn’t fail to find a cite because the word was bowdlerized; you failed to find a cite becase there isn’t any to find. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/104 "2013-04-02T15:57:13Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > However, when you look at Obama’s comments in context it was clear that he as making a broader statement that revealed some deeply flawed assumptions: That small business owners aren’t successful primarily because of their own hard work and intelligence, but rather because of the community they depend on. Doubly wrong. 1. There is no basis for such an interpretation. 2. Even if there were a basis for such an interpretation, the statement so interpreted would be the simple truth. This can be proven by a simple experiment: establish a business with mediocre management in the midst of society and a business with (otherwise) topnotch management on a desert island, and see which one propspers. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/105 "2013-04-02T17:08:18Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I went through five pages of hits and didn’t find any that weren’t from right-wing blogs. I suppose it would be censored if published in a reputable source, so that might be why. Well, only the word “niggers” might be censored. But, if I substitute “blacks” or “negroes,” my search yields the same results. And, it’s not at all hard to find well-sourced quotes of LBJ saying extremely nasty things. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/106 "2013-04-02T22:02:58Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And, it’s not at all hard to find well-sourced quotes of LBJ saying extremely nasty things. [_E.g.:_](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson) > [@](#): > > It’s probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in. > > - On FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, as quoted in The New York Times (31 October 1971) > > Making a speech on economics is a lot like pissing down your leg. It seems hot to you, but it never does to anyone else. > > - Private comment, as quoted in Name-Dropping (1999) by John Kenneth Galbraith, p. 149 > > Fuck your parliament and your constitution. America is an elephant. Cyprus is a flea. Greece is a flea. If these two fleas continue itching the elephant, they may just get whacked good …We pay a lot of good American dollars to the Greeks, Mr. Ambassador. If your Prime Minister gives me talk about democracy, parliament and constitution, he, his parliament and his constitution may not last long… > > - Comment to the Greek ambassador to Washington, Alexander Matsas, over the Cyprus issue in June 1964. Quoted in I Should Have Died (1977) by Philip Deane, pp. 113-114 > > If the circumstances make it such that you can’t fuck a man in the ass, then just peckerslap him. Better to let him know who’s in charge than to let him think he’s got the keys to the car. > > - Private comment, found in White House Tapes: Eavesdropping on the President (2003) edited by John Prados ---
**Author:** ![BookCollecting101](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee59a6/32.png) [@BookCollecting101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BookCollecting101)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/107 "2013-04-02T22:17:22Z")
GW Bush, “The thing about books is that sometimes there nice pictures.” huh? ---
**Author:** ![Penny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8baadc/32.png) [@Penny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penny)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2013, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/108 "2013-04-02T22:29:11Z")
_“Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning.”_ - George W. Bush Florence, S.C., Jan. 11, 2000 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/109 "2013-04-03T03:35:36Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Urban legend: [Did John F. Kennedy Proclaim Himself to Be a Jelly Doughnut? | Snopes.com](http://www.snopes.com/language/misxlate/berliner.asp) Huh. My German teachers at university told us he did do that. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/110 "2013-04-03T04:33:13Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Huh. My German teachers at university told us he did do that. It is both widespread and wrong: [Ich bin ein Berliner - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner#Jelly_doughnut_misconception) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/111 "2013-04-03T05:37:49Z")
Warren G. Harding: “America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums, but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation, but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant nationality.” “Let the black man vote when he is fit to vote; prohibit the white man voting when he is unfit to vote.” “The black man should seek to be, and he should be encouraged to be, the best possible black man and not the best possible imitation of a white man.” “I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends, my god-damned friends, White, they’re the ones who keep me walking the floor nights!” “I don’t know what to do or where to turn in this taxation matter. Somewhere there must be a book that tells all about it, where I could go to straighten it out in my mind. But I don’t know where the book is, and maybe I couldn’t read it if I found it.” “I am not fit for this office and should never have been here.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/112 "2013-04-03T06:00:04Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > LBJ: “I’ll have those niggers voting Democratic for the next 200 years.” > > Absolute vintage LBJ. This quote would have been way out of character. Johnson was a political animal. He probably understood voting better than any other President. Only somebody who was politically naive would brag about gaining black voters in the sixties. Johnson understood he was losing several white voters for every black voter he gained. And he was a deeply egotistical man who never wanted to do look naive. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/113 "2013-04-04T03:41:54Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Huh. My German teachers at university told us he did do that. > [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > It is both widespread and wrong: [Ich bin ein Berliner - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner#Jelly_doughnut_misconception) Can’t trust those damned Krauts! _shakes fist at them_ Although now that I think back, it was just one teacher who told us, and she was a native-English-speaking American graduate student being used as a teaching assistant. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/114 "2013-04-04T04:02:43Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > This quote would have been way out of character. Johnson was a political animal. Or some sort, at any rate . . . ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2013, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/115 "2013-04-04T04:05:36Z")
Speaking of President Johnson, this isn’t a quote, but I once read that as a young man, he hitchhiked all the way to the West Coast and back from Texas. I kind of like that. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 7:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/116 "2013-04-12T07:17:00Z")
Bush Junior: “I’m the decider.” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2013, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385/118 "2013-04-12T11:54:17Z")
… and “I’m the commander guy.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-famous-quotes-of-the-presidents/648385.md?page=5)