William Howard Taft quotes

Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever. (William Howard Taft)
We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.
William Howard Taft
The world is not going to be saved by legislation.
William Howard Taft
No tendency is quite so strong in human nature as the desire to lay down rules of conduct for other people.
William Howard Taft
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.
William Howard Taft
I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade with each becomes more valuable to the other.
William Howard Taft
Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies.
William Howard Taft
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.
William Howard Taft
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.
William Howard Taft
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.
William Howard Taft
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. (William Howard Taft)
Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.
William Howard Taft
I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God.
William Howard Taft
I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.
William Howard Taft
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.
William Howard Taft
As the Republican platforms says, the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country.
William Howard Taft
Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.
William Howard Taft
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.
William Howard Taft
The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make the corn to grow, he cannot make business good; although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way.
William Howard Taft
Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.
William Howard Taft
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. (William Howard Taft)
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.
William Howard Taft
The truth is that in my present life I don't remember that I ever was president.
William Howard Taft
Politics, when I am in it, makes me sick.
William Howard Taft
There is only one thing I wast to say about Ohio that has a political tinge, and that is that I think a mistake has been made of recent years in Ohio in failing to continue as our representatives the same people term after term. I do not need to tell a Washington audience, among whom there are certainly some who have been interested in legislation, that length of service in the House and in the Senate is what gives influence.
William Howard Taft