William Howard Taft Quotes

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

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.

Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race.

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

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.

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.

I am going to do what I think is best for the country, within my jurisdiction and power, and then let the rest take care of itself.

Presidents may go to the seashore or to the mountains. Cabinet officers may go about the country explaining how fortunate the country is in having such an administration, but the machinery at Washington continues to operate under the army of faithful non-commissioned officers, and the great mass of governmental business is uninterrupted.

If humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.

The diplomacy of the present administration has sought to respond to modern ideas of commercial intercourse. This policy has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets. It is one that appeals alike to idealistic humanitarian sentiments, to the dictates of sound policy and strategy, and to legitimate commercial aims.

Politics, when I am in it, makes me sick.

Aquele que só for atraído pelas honrarias e pela ambição do mando, sem esperança de produzir trabalho útil, é indigno da posição que disputa e incapaz de exercer o poder.

Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgement.

There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach — it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end.

One of the marvelous things about him is that he is strong enough to force the men who dislike him the most to stand by him. By far he is the strongest man before the people to-day except Roosevelt. I think his greatest fault is his failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done. This is a great weakness in any man. I think it was one of the strongest things about Roosevelt. He never tried to minimize what other people did and often exaggerated it.