Quotes By William Howard Taft

We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.

No, the only things which do not bother me are the elements. I can overcome them without a fight. All one has to do to get the best of the elements is to stand pat and one will win.

A system in which we may have an enforced rest from legislation for two years is not bad.

I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town.

Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.

A government is for the benefit of all the people.

Failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done is a great weakness in any man.

I am afraid I am a constant disappointment to my party. The fact of the matter is, the longer I am president the less of a party man I seem to become.

I'll be damned if I am not getting tired of this. It seems to be the profession of a President simply to hear other people talk.

Politics makes me sick.

Action for which I become responsible, or for which my administration becomes responsible, shall be within the law.

The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much.

I think I might as well give up being a candidate. There are so many people in the country who don't like me.

If this humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.

Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.

I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.

Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.

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.

I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God.

We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.

No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.

I do not know much about politics, but I am trying to do the best I can with this administration until the time shall come for me to turn it over to somebody else.

As the Republican platforms says, the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country.

Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.

Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade with each becomes more valuable to the other.

The world is not going to be saved by legislation.

I am president now, and tired of being kicked around.