Throughout the 250-year history of our great country, our presidents have represented us to the rest of the world as our primary spokesmen. Some have been eloquent statesmen, others have had a more “down home” approach to expressing their philosophies, hopes, and dreams.
George Washington
“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
“If freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.”
“The power under the Constitution will always be in the people.”
John Adams
“Always stand on principle even if you stand alone.”
“Those who trade liberty for security have neither.”
Thomas Jefferson
“The issue today is the same as it has been throughout all history, whether man shall be allowed to govern himself or be ruled by a small elite.”
“When you abandon freedom to achieve security, you lose both and deserve neither.”
James Madison
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.”
“Wherever the real power in a government lies, there is the danger of oppression.”
James Monroe
“National honor is the national property of the highest value.”
“We must support our rights or lose our character, and with it, perhaps, our liberties.”
“In a representative republic, the education of our children must be of the utmost importance.”
John Quincy Adams
“Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone.”
“This is a land, not of privileges, but of equal rights.”
“I am a warrior, so that my son may be a merchant, so that his son may be a poet.”
Andrew Jackson
“It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the act of government to their selfish purposes.”
Martin Van Buren
“The national will is the supreme law of the Republic, and on all subjects within the limits of these constitutional powers, it should be faithfully obeyed by the public servant.”
Abraham Lincoln
“We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”
“Nations do not die from invasion; they die from internal rottenness.”
“The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it.”
Theodore Roosevelt
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.”
“The country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a good place for all of us to live in.”
“What a man does for himself dies with him. What a man does for his community lives long after he’s gone.”
Woodrow Wilson
“The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.”
“Government ought to be all outside and no inside…. Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.”
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
“We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”
“Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”
“Repetition does not transform a lie into the truth.”
Dwight David Eisenhower
“We the people elect leaders not to rule but to serve.”
“Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 158 million followers, it will no longer be America.”
John F. Kennedy
“The rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.”
“The state is the servant of the citizen, and not his master.”
“My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.”
Ronald Reagan
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.”
“A nation that cannot control its borders is not a nation.”
“Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.”
George H. W. Bush
“We are a nation of communities… a bright diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.”
“We don’t want an America that is closed to the world. What we want is a world that is open to America.”
“I hope my own children never have to fight a war.”
Barack Obama
“Our destiny is not written for us, but by us.”
“What is important is that we make sure to work together, that we understand that our strength comes from unity and not division”
Donald J. Trump
“Nothing threatens the integrity of our democracy more than when government officials put their public office up for sale.”
“We’re a failing nation. We’re a nation that’s in serious decline. We’re being laughed at all over the world. All over the world, they laugh, I know the leaders very well. They’re coming to see me. They call me. We’re laughed at all over the world.
“This election will determine whether we’re a free nation or whether we have only the illusion of democracy but are in fact controlled by a small handful of global special interests rigging the system, and our system is rigged.”
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Jim Glynn is Professor Emeritus of Sociology. He may be contacted at j_glynn@att.net.