William H. Taft Quotes |

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• "A government is for the benefit of all the people."
• "A system in which we may have an enforced rest from legislation for two years is not bad."
• "Action for which I become responsible, or for which my administration becomes responsible, shall be within the law."
• "Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America."
• "As the Republican platforms says, the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country."
• "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."
• "Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood."
• "Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment."
• "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 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."
• "I am president now, and tired of being kicked around."
• "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."
• "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."
• "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."
• "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."
• "I think I might as well give up being a candidate. There are so many people in the country who don't like me."
• "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."
• "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."
• "No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people."
• "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."
• "Politics makes me sick."
• "Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever."
• "Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that to-day is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity."
• "Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies."
• "The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much."
• "The world is not going to be saved by legislation."
• "We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government."
• "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."