Raw Wit And Wry Wisdom by Lin Stone - HTML preview

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William H. Taft

We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government. - William Howard Taft

William Taft was the first president to own a car.

William Taft is the only president to also serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court (1921-1930)

Woodrow Wilson

If you want to make enemies, try to change something. - Woodrow Wilson

You are here to enrich the world and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand. ~ Woodrow Wilson

It is just as hard to do your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you. Woodrow Wilson

I believe in democracy because it releases the energies of every human being. Woodrow Wilson

Energy in a nation is like Sap in a tree, it rises from the bottom up. Woodrow Wilson

There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that it does not need to convince others by force that it is right. Woodrow Wilson

Leadership does not always wear the harness of compromise. Woodrow Wilson

I had rather fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail. Woodrow T. Wilson

To such a task we dedicate our lives and our fortunes, everything that we are and everything that we have, with the pride of those who know that the day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood and her might for the principles that gave her birth and the peace which she has treasured. God helping her, she can do no other.... The world must be made safe for democracy. Woodrow Wilson.

The day has come to conquer or submit. We will not submit; we will vanquish. ~ Woodrow Wilson

When men take up arms to set other men free, there is something sacred and holy in the warfare. ~ Woodrow Wilson

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“Silent Cal” seems to have said much, and quite well..

I've never been hurt by something I didn't say. Calvin Coolidge

I think the American public wants a solemn ass as a President, and I think I'll go along with them. ~ Calvin Coolidge

There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, anytime. Calvin Coolidge

The business of America is business. Calvin Coolidge

After order and liberty, the economy is one of the highest essentials of a free government. Calvin Coolidge

It is only when men began to worship that they begin to grow. Calvin Coolidge

The foundations of society and of our government rests on the teachings of the Bible, that it would be difficult to support them, if faith in these teachings should cease To Be practically universal in this country. Calvin Coolidge

I do not choose to run. Calvin Coolidge 1928

Press on. Nothing can take the place of persistence. Calvin Coolidge

If you see ten problems (ahead), nine will run into the ditch before they reach you. Calvin Coolidge

Little progress can be made by merely attempting to repress what is evil. Our great hope lies in developing what is good. Calvin Coolidge

Don't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. Calvin Coolidge

Patriotism is easy to understand in America - it means looking out for yourself by looking out for your country. ~ Calvin Coolidge

No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been rewarded for what he or she gave. - Calvin Coolidge

We cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once. - Calvin Coolidge

The foundation of our independence and our government rests upon our basic religious convictions. Calvin Coolidge

I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. — Calvin Coolidge

Economy is the method by which we prepare today to afford the improvements of tomorrow. Calvin Coolidge

“Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” - Calvin Coolidge

The most common commodity in this country is unrealized potential. - Calvin Coolidge

Never go out to meet trouble. ~ Calvin Coolidge

To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. -- Calvin Coolidge

The foundation of our independence and our government rests upon our basic religious convictions. Calvin Coolidge

I favor the American system of enterprise, and I am opposed to any general extension of government ownership and control." Cal Coolidge

There's no greater service we can render the oppressed of the earth than to maintain inviolate the freedom of our own citizens. C Coolidge

There is no dignity quite so impressive, and no independence quite so important, as living within your means. ~ Calvin Coolidge

Herbert Hoover (31st) was the first president born west of the Mississippi. He is largely credited with not acting soon enough to contain the GREAT Depression. He's only guilty of slowly making weak decisions in a time in America's history when vision was paramount.

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Prosperity is just around the corner.- Herbert Hoover

Be patient and calm for no one can catch fish in anger. -Herbert Hoover

About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends. ~ Herbert Hoover

Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die. Herbert Hoover

Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt -- Herbert Hoover

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism. - Herbert Hoover

Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress. - Herbert Hoover

I suggest that the United Nations be reorganized without the communist nations in it. Herbert Clark Hoover

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In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

We are going to tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt

If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

We are a rich Nation; we can afford to pay for security and prosperity without having to sacrifice our liberties into the bargain. FDR

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The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Franklin D. Roosevelt

There is nothing I love as much as a good fight. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

More than an end to war,   we want an end to the beginning of all wars - yes, an end to this brutal,  inhuman and  thoroughly  impractical method  of  settling the  differences  between governments. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Don't forget what I discovered that over ninety percent of all national deficits from 1921 to 1939 were caused by payments for past, present, and future wars. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

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. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Eleanor Roosevelt.

It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours. ~ Harry S. Truman

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years. -- Harry S. Truman

My choice early in life was to either be a piano-player in a whorehouse or a politician. .. there's hardly any difference. -Harry S. Truman

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship. -- Harry S. Truman

Harry S. Truman was the first president to give a speech on television.

You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog. ~ Harry S. Truman

The bravest thing Harry Truman ever did was to sign executive orders to desegregate the armed forces based on race. Why took it so long?

We must build a new world, a far better world -- one in which the eternal dignity of man is respected.” ~ Harry S Truman

Its amazing what you can accomplish when you do not care who gets the credit. - Harry S. Truman

I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell. ~ Harry S Truman

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Harry S. Truman

Things are more like they are now than they ever were before. Dwight D. Eisenhower

I can think of nothing more boring for the American people than to have to sit in their living rooms for a whole half hour looking at my face on their television screens.

*

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil, and you're a thousand miles from the corn field.

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

Don't join the book burners.

Don't think you're going to conceal faults by concealing evidence that they ever existed.

Don't be afraid to go in your (personal) library and read every book..

When you appeal to force, there's one thing you must never do - lose.

There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, ntelligence and energy of her citizens cannot cure.

Before all else, we seek, upon our common labor as a nation, the blessings of Almighty God.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

Hitting people over the head is assault, not leadership.

Only strength can cooperate. Weakness can only beg. Dwight D. Eisenhower

We shall return to proven ways - not because they are old, but because they are true. - Barry Goldwater, not quite a president.

***

John F. Kennedy

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. John F. Kennedy

This country can not afford to be materially rich and spiritually poor. John F. Kennedy

We need men who can dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy

This country does not forget God or the soldier. Upon both we now depend. JFK

Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. JFK

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. ~ JFK

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names. ~ John F. Kennedy

***

Lyndon B. Johnson was the first American president to name an African American to his cabinet.

If one morning I walked across the Potomac on top of the water, the headline that afternoon would say, “President Johnson can't swim!”

Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose. Lyndon B. Johnson

The noblest search is the search for excellence. - Lyndon B. Johnson

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it.-Lyndon B. Johnson

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time ~ Lyndon B. Johnson

At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems - the answer for all the problems of the world - come to a single word. That word is education. Lyndon B. Johnson Emphasis added.

While you're saving your face, you're losing your (behind). Lyndon Johnson   

Richard M. Nixon

A man is not finished when he's defeated; he's finished when he quits. ~ Richard M. Nixon

Richard M. Nixon was the first president to visit all 50 states and the first president to visit China.

When the president does it, that means it's not illegal. - Richard M. Nixon

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.- Richard M. Nixon

It is necessary for me to establish a winner image. Therefore, I have to beat somebody. Richard M. Nixon.

Scrubbing floors and emptying bedpans has as much dignity as the Presidency. -- Richard M. Nixon

The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.  Richard M. Nixon 

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too. -Richard M. Nixon

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself. Richard M. Nixon

The people have a right to know whether or not their president is a crook! Well, I'm not a crook! Richard M. Nixon

I was not lying. I said things that later on seemed to be untrue. Richard M. Nixon  

**

Gerald Ford: If the government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big enough to take away everything you have. 

I always felt that what I was doing would prepare me for the next opportunity. -- Gerald R. Ford 

I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators Gerald R. Ford 

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States from 1977 to 1981. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Carter Center.

On December 12, 1952, an accident with the experimental NRX reactor at Atomic Energy of Canada's Chalk River Laboratories caused a partial meltdown resulting in millions of liters of radioactive water flooding the reactor building's basement and leaving the reactor's core ruined. Carter was ordered to Chalk River to lead a U.S. maintenance crew that joined other American and Canadian service personnel to assist in the shutdown of the reactor. The painstaking process required each team member to don protective gear and be lowered individually into the reactor for a few minutes at a time, limiting their exposure to radioactivity while they disassembled the crippled reactor. During and after his presidency, Carter said that his experience at Chalk River had shaped his views on atomic energy and led him to cease development of a neutron bomb.

On his second day in office, Carter pardoned all evaders of the Vietnam War drafts. During Carter's term as President, two new cabinet-level departments, the Department of Energy and the Department of Education, were established. He established a national energy policy that included conservation, price control, and new technology. In foreign affairs, Carter pursued the Camp David Accords, the Panama Canal Treaties, the second round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II), and the return of the Panama Canal Zone to Panama.

Carter cautioned against Hillary Clinton being picked for the vice president slot on the Obama ticket, saying "I think it would be the worst mistake that could be made. That would just accumulate the negative aspects of both candidates"

Despite being a Democrat, Carter endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the Republican party 2012 Presidential primary in mid-September 2011, not because he supported Romney, but because he felt Obama's re-election bid would be strengthened in a race against Romney.

It seemed to many people that President Carter had trouble making up his mind. AFTER he lost a race against Reagan, Carter definitely had no problem making up his mind about anything – and speaking or writing his considered opinion.

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams

We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.

You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

Ronald Reagan

If we ever forget that we're one nation under God, then we will be a nation gone under. - Ronald Reagan

"The future doesn't belong to the faint-hearted -- it belongs to the brave," ~ Ronald Reagan

Sometimes when we reach for the stars, we fall short ~ Ronald Reagan

You won't get gun control by disarming law-abiding citizens. There's only one ...way to get real gun control: Disarm the thugs and the criminals, lock them up and if you don't actually throw away the key, at least lose it for a long time... It's a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun controllers. I happen to know this from personal experience. - Ronald Reagan

Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty." - Ronald Reagan

I do not want to go back to the past. I want to go back to the past way of looking at the future. Ronald Reagan.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table" - Ronald Reagan

We cannot allow our children to continue falling behind. Instead, we must insist that all American students master the basics, math, science, history, reading and writing that have always formed the core of our civilized nation. What is needed, is for children to do more work and better work, and that includes homework. No learning can take place without good order in the classrooms and that means restoring good old-fashioned discipline. In too many class rooms teachers lack authority to make students take tests, hand in homework or even quiet down in class. Ronald Reagan 

Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong. - Ronald Reagan

Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose. Ronald Reagan

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help. Ronald Reagan.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. - Ronald Reagan

Bill Clinton

Today we can declare: Government is not the problem, and government is not the solution. We, the American people, we are the solution. -- Bill Clinton

When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide Web.... Now even my cat has its own page. Bill Clinton

There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. Bill Clinton

We have to ask the wealthiest Americans to pay their fair share again. Their incomes went up in the 1980s and their taxes went down. We can't ask the middle class to pay more; their incomes went down and their taxes went up. Bill Clinton

 

Barak Obama

There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there. There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won't agree with every decision or policy I make as president. And we know the government can't solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree. And, above all, I will ask you to join in the work of remaking this nation, the only way it's been done in America for 221 years — block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand. Barack Obama

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, Huh. It works. It makes sense. Barack Obama

We can’t be discouraged by what is. We’ve got to keep pushing for what ought to be, the America we ought to leave to our children ~ Barack Obama

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And now we have the Constitutions of the United States, often adopted, often emulated, but never surpassed.

 

The Constitution

of

The United States

 

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article I

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment. Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes.

The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any state, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.

No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which

he shall be chosen.

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of President of the United States.

The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present.

Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law.

Section 4. The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a different day.

Section 5. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member.

Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and the yeas and n