# Quotations From Or About Richard Milhous Nixon **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 17, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948 "2008-01-17T23:26:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/21 "2008-01-18T18:42:58Z")
“There they are…see no evil, hear no evil and evil.” –Bob Dole (Upon observing Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon standing together at White House event) ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/22 "2008-01-18T18:50:29Z")
[QUOTE=ChiefScott] . . . and “Sock it to me.” – on _Laugh In_ [/QUOTE] I’m having a hard time picturing him on Laugh In. I’d like to know what he said about the cast, though. He had to have grumbled something. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/23 "2008-01-18T19:07:46Z")
“What th- ?” – Richard M. Nixon. Extra points for the reference. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/24 "2008-01-18T19:15:19Z")
Traditional favorites: > [@](#): > > It was a little cocker spaniel dog in a crate that he’d sent all the way from Texas. Black and white spotted. And our little girl-Tricia, the 6-year old-named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love the dog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they say about it, we’re gonna keep it. > [@](#): > > I don’t give a shit what happens. I want you all to stonewall it, let them plead the Fifth Amendment, cover up or anything else, if it’ll save it—save this plan. That’s the whole point. We’re going to protect our people if we can. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/25 "2008-01-18T20:25:25Z")
From [this page:](http://teaching.arts.usyd.edu.au/history/hsty3080/StudentWebSites/Nixon%20Obits/source8) “He never left any lumps (when making mashed potatoes),” [his mother, Hannah Nixon], told his biographers. “He used the whipping motion to make them smooth instead of going up and down the way other boys did.” She also said she always called him Richard; he just seemed to be a Richard sort of boy. [From here:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Gahagan) The nickname “Tricky Dick” was bestowed on Nixon by Helen Gahagan Douglas, who lost to him in the 1950 election for U.S. Senator from California. During the campaign, the then-future president had attempted to paint his “Communist-leaning” opponent as a “fellow traveler” – not exactly a Red, but definitely “pink right down to her underwear”. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/26 "2008-01-18T21:14:27Z")
> [@](#): > > “There can be no whitewash, at the White House” April 30th 1973 ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/27 "2008-01-18T23:21:46Z")
Lotta good responses, so far. ---
**Author:** ![essell](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/34f0e0/32.png) [@essell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/essell)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2008, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/28 "2008-01-18T23:32:55Z")
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 M. Nixon ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/29 "2008-01-19T03:44:55Z")
On a trip to China, onseeing the Great Wall: “I think you have to conclude that this is a great wall” At Charles De Gaulle’s funeral: “This is a great day for France.” ---
**Author:** ![Ragiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/30 "2008-01-19T05:09:17Z")
“Let me say this about that.” ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/31 "2008-01-19T05:37:38Z")
During the Watergate era, Mad magazine ran a spread comparing Ben Franklin’s sayings in ‘Poor Richard’s Almanac’ and Nixon’s comments on the White House tapes. For example: Poor Richard: "‘Tis foolish to lay out money in repentance’ Richard Nixon: "So, your feeling is we can’t keep paying blackmail to these guys.’ Poor Richard: “It costeth more to maintain one vice than ten virtues” Richard Nixon: “It’s going to cost us a million dollars to take care of these jackasses in jail.” Poor Richard: “Reputations, like mirrors, are easily broken and difficult to mend.” Richard Nixon: “If this comes out, it kills him. Maybe not legally, but it kills him with the public.” Etc. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/32 "2008-01-19T10:02:02Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria] I’m having a hard time picturing him on Laugh In. I’d like to know what he said about the cast, though. He had to have grumbled something. [/QUOTE] He didn’t actually appear on Laugh-In in the flesh. His appearance saying “Sock it to me” was pre-taped. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/33 "2008-01-19T14:06:28Z")
[Moments before he resigned:](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_mRNTW4sjc) “My friend Ollie always wants to take a lot of pictures of me. I’m afraid he’ll catch me picking my nose” ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/34 "2008-01-19T15:17:27Z")
Nixon was not the most charismatic president or even the most honest. But he was incredibly effective at his job. He was the root cause of Detente and he got the Chinese talking to the West after many years of the West being ignored. No mean feat when just the Chinese playing table tennis against a Western country was considered to be a major breakthrough. But the main thing I’ll always remember Nixon for was his handling of the SECOND Cuban Missile crisis as related by Miles Copeland,ex head of the C.I.A. The Soviets testing the water sent ships towards Cuba with IMBMs. Nixon got on the hot line and said … “Take them out or we’ll take you out” There was no blockade,no quiet deal afterwards to do a reciprocal missile removal as did Kennedy from Turkey. The Russians feared and respected Nixon so in an extremely short time after the hot line message the ships turned round and sailed eastwards. I.,M.O. Carter was the most honest President that you guys have had in recent times but he was a total disaster when negotiating with the Soviets. Without getting embroiled in any arguments about present day U.S. politics Nixon was ruthless but shrewd. That does not necessarily mean that if you’re ruthless you’re automatically shrewd,even with the best advice in the world if you 're a dummy then thats not good for the most powerful country in the free world or for the free world. IMO the enormous fault with American democracy(and I’m Not a liberal)is that you can be as thick as two short planks but if you/re incredibly rich you will still get elected to the most important position on Earth,god help us. I leave you to draw your own conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/35 "2008-01-19T15:19:13Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] …The Soviets testing the water sent ships towards Cuba with IMBMs… [/QUOTE] Intercontinental Massive Bowel Movements? ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/36 "2008-01-19T15:31:49Z")
[QUOTE=elucidator] Intercontinental Massive Bowel Movements? [/QUOTE] Hey dont complain about it,it saved the world from destruction. Mind you that might have been the Fart threat,something no sane person would treat lightly. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/37 "2008-01-20T07:45:00Z")
[QUOTE=Lust4Life] But the main thing I’ll always remember Nixon for was his handling of the SECOND Cuban Missile crisis as related by Miles Copeland,ex head of the C.I.A. [/QUOTE] Correction, although Miles Copeland WAS a CIA agent, he was never the head of it. Pointless bit of trivia having nothing to do with Nixon: Miles Copeland’s son is Stewart Copeland, drummer for the Police. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2008, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/38 "2008-01-20T10:57:27Z")
[QUOTE=cochrane] Correction, although Miles Copeland WAS a CIA agent, he was never the head of it. Pointless bit of trivia having nothing to do with Nixon: Miles Copeland’s son is Stewart Copeland, drummer for the Police. 😃 [/QUOTE] Yep you’re right,I’m just glad that I didnt do my usual trick and talk about Stewart Copeland of the C.I.A.something I’ve been guilty of before now 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/39 "2009-06-24T17:02:34Z")
New quotes from an old favorite (thanks to [new tapes being disclosed](http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/06/23/nixon_tapes/index.html)): > [@](#): > > “There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white.” :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2009, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948/40 "2009-06-24T18:22:27Z")
And this: > [@](#): > > “It may be they have a death wish. You know that’s been the problem with our Jewish friends for centuries.” A classy, classy man. The American boogeyman. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quotations-from-or-about-richard-milhous-nixon/433948.md?page=3)