William Howard Taft's Quotes

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 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 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.

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.

The world is not going to be saved by legislation.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.

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.

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

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

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