If you want to see your plays performed the way you wrote them, become President.
—Vaclav Havel (1936–2011) Czech Dramatist, Statesman
Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
I see the President almost every day. I see very plainly Abraham Lincoln’s dark brown face with its deep-cut lines, the eyes always to me with a deep latent sadness in the expression. None of the artists or pictures has caught the deep, though subtle and indirect expression of this man’s face. There is something else there. One of the great portrait painters of two or three centuries ago is needed.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
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 (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or anyone else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about anyone else.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Historian, Political Leader, Explorer
As far as the job of President goes, it’s rewarding and I’ve given before this group the definition of happiness for the Greeks. I’ll define it again: the full use of your powers along lines of excellence. I find, therefore, that the Presidency provides some happiness.
—John F. Kennedy (1917–63) American Head of State, Journalist
The President has paid dear for his White House. It has commonly cost him all his peace, and the best of his manly attributes. To preserve for a short time so conspicuous an appearance before the world, he is content to eat dust before the real masters who stand erect behind the throne.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he has really hit his stride.
—Max Lerner (1902–92) American Journalist, Educator, Author
Under a Presidential government, a nation has, except at the electing moment, no influence; it has not the ballot-box before it; its virtue is gone, and it must wait till its instant of despotism again returns.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
Within the first few months I discovered that being president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Some of the Presidents were great and some of them weren’t. I can say that, because I wasn’t one of the great Presidents, but I had a good time trying to be one, I can tell you that.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.
—Bob Dylan (b.1941) American Singer-songwriter
The president is the representative of the whole nation and he’s the only lobbyist that all the one hundred and sixty million people in the country have.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
In America, the President reigns for four years, and journalism governs for ever and ever.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
All the president is is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Jerry Ford is so dumb he can’t fart and chew gum at the same time.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority.
—Alexander Hamilton (c.1757–1804) American Federalist Politician, Statesman
The President is the people’s lobbyist.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I’m beginning to believe it.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
Oh, that lovely title, ex-president.
—Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) American Head of State, Military Leader
The power confided in me will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
In our brief national history we have shot four of our presidents, worried five of them to death, impeached one and hounded another out of office. And when all else fails, we hold an election and assassinate their character.
—P. J. O’Rourke (1947–2022) American Journalist, Political Satirist
When Ronald Reagan’s career in show business came to an end, he was hired to impersonate, first, a California governor and then an American president who would reduce taxes for his employers, the Southern and Western New Rich, much of whose money came from the defence industries. There is nothing unusual about this arrangement. All recent presidents have had their price-tags.
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright
I’d rather be right than President.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
I’m the only president you’ve got.
—Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–73) American Head of State, Political leader
When you get to be President, there are all those things, the honors, the twenty-one gun salutes, all those things. You have to remember it isn’t for you. It’s for the Presidency.
—Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) American Head of State
Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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