Happy President's Day! - February 17, 2003

Some words from The Presidents of the United States:

1. "Few men have the virtue to withstand the highest bidder." -- George Washington, 1st President of the United States of America (1789-1797)
2. "Upon the stage of life, while conscience claps, let the world hiss! On the contrary, if conscience disapproves, the loudest applauses of the world are of little value." -- John Adams, 2nd President of the United States of America (1797-1801)
3. "Our peculiar security is in the possession of a written constitution." -- Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States of America (1801-1809)
4. "Theories are the offspring of the closet; exceptions and qualifications are the lessons of experience." -- James Madison, 4th President of the United States of America (1809-1817)
5. "The best form of government is that which is most likely to prevent the greatest sum of evil." -- James Monroe, 5th President of the United States of America (1817-1825)
6. "All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse." -- John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States of America (1825-1829)
7. "I know what I am fit for. I can command a body of men in a rough way; but I am not fit to be President." -- Andrew Jackson, 7th President of the United States of America (1829-1837)
8. "It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't." -- Martin van Buren, 8th President of the United States of America (1837-1841)
9. "A decent and manly examination of the acts of the Government should be not only tolerated, but encouraged." -- William Henry Harrison, 9th President of the United States of America (1841)
10. "I can never consent to being dictated to." -- John Tyler, 10th President of the United States of America (1841-1845)
11. "No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure." -- James Polk, 11th President of the United States of America (1845-1849)
12. "I have always done my duty. I am ready to die. My only regret is for the friends I leave behind me." -- Zachary Taylor, 12th President of the United States of America (1849-1850)
13. "An honorable defeat is better than a dishonorable victory." -- Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States of America (1850-1853)
14. "With the Union my best and dearest earthly hopes are entwined." -- Franklin Pierce, 14th President of the United States of America (1853-1857)
15. "The ballot box is the surest arbiter of disputes among free men." -- James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States of America (1857-1861)
16. "Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." -- Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States of America (1861-1865)
17. "It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word." -- Andrew Johnson, 17th President of the United States of America (1865-1869)
18. "The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity." -- Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States of America (1869-1877)
19. "Fighting battles is like courting girls: those who make the most pretensions and are boldest usually win." -- Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States of America (1877-1881)
20. "The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable." -- James A. Garfield, 20th President of the United States of America (1881)
21. "Men may die, but the fabrics of free institutions remains unshaken." -- Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States of America (1881-1885)
22. "No man has ever yet been hanged for breaking the spirit of a law." -- Grover Cleveland, 22nd President of the United States of America (1885-1889)
23. "I knew that my staying up would not change the [election] result if I were defeated, while if elected I had a hard day ahead of me. So I thought a night's rest was best in any event." -- Benjamin Harrison, 23rd President of the United States of America (1889-1893)
24. "The United States is not a nation to which peace is a necessity." -- Grover Cleveland, 24th President of the United States of America (1893-1897)
25. "That's all a man can hope for during his lifetime - to set an example - and when he is dead, to be an inspiration for history." -- William McKinley, 25th President of the United States of America (1897-1901)
26. "Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States of America (1901-1909)
27. "Don't worry over what the newspapers say. I don't. Why should anyone else? I told the truth to the newspaper correspondents - but when you tell the truth to them they are at sea." -- William H. Taft, 27th President of the United States of America (1909-1913)
28. "Every people should be left free to determine its own policy, its own way of development, unhindered, unthreatened, unafraid, the little along with the great and powerful… These are American principles." -- Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States of America (1913-1921)
29. "America's present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration." -- Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States of America (1921-1923)
30. "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my Administration has been minding my own business." -- Calvin Coolidge, 30th President of the United States of America (1923-1929)
31. "A splendid storehouse of integrity and freedom has been bequeathed to us by our forefathers. In this day of confusion, of peril to liberty, our high duty is to see that this storehouse is not robbed of its contents." -- Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States of America (1929-1933)
32. "For three long years I have been going up and down this country preaching that government . . . costs too much. I shall not stop that preaching." -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States of America (1933-1945)
33. >"When even one American -- who has done nothing wrong-is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth -- then all Americans are in peril." -- Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States of America (1945-1953)
34. "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States of America (1953-1961)
35. "The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining." -- John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States of America (1961-1963)
36. "Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose." -- Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States of America (1963-1969)
37. "The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them." -- Richard M. Nixon, 37th President of the United States of America (1969-1974)
38. "I don't go to the movies to get a social lesson. I go for entertainment." -- Gerald R. Ford, 38th President of the United States of America (1974-1977)
39. "I look forward to these confrontations with the press to kind of balance up the nice and pleasant things that come to me as president." -- Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States of America (1977-1981)
40. "While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future." -- Ronald W. Reagan, 40th President of the United States of America (1981-1989)
41. "I take as my guide the hope of a saint:
    in crucial things, unity --
    in important things, diversity --
    in all things, generosity."
    -- George Bush, 41st President of the United States of America (1989-1993)
42. "There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America." -- William J. Clinton, 42nd President of the United States of America (1993-2001)
43. "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." -- George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States of America (2001-present)