William Howard Taft famous quotes

Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.
-- William Howard Taft

#Judgement #Enthusiasm #Causes

The City that knows how.
-- William Howard Taft

#Cities #San Francisco

Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.
-- William Howard Taft

#Forever #President #Goes On

Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies.
-- William Howard Taft

#Taken #Evil #Progress

The world is not going to be saved by legislation.
-- William Howard Taft

#Success #Presidential #World

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

#Government #Perfect #Imperfect

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.
-- William Howard Taft

#Inspirational Life #Writing #Presidential

Unless education promotes character making, unless it helps men to be more moral, more just to their fellows, more law abiding, more discriminatingly patriotic and public spirited, it is not worth the trouble taken to furnish it.
-- William Howard Taft

#Taken #Character #Patriotic

Lawyers are necessary in a community. Some of you...take a different view; but as I am a member of that legal profession, or was at one time, and have only lost standing in it to become a politician, I still retain the pride of the profession. And I still insist that it is the law and the lawyer that make popular government under a written constitution and written statutes possible..
-- William Howard Taft

#Pride #Government #Views

We are imperfect. We cannot expect perfect government.
-- William Howard Taft

#Government #Perfect #Imperfect

Golf in the interest of good health and good manners. It promotes self-restraint and affords a chance to play the man and act the gentleman.
-- William Howard Taft

#Golf #Men #Self

A government is for the benefit of all the people.
-- William Howard Taft

#Government #People #Benefits

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

#Believe #Religion #Atheism

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

#Race #Civilization #Presidential

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

#Weed #Cutting #America

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

#Law #Presidential #Important

Masonry aims at the promotion of morality and higher living by the cultivation of the social side of man, the rousing in him of the instincts of charity and love of his kind. It rests surely on the foundation of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God.
-- William Howard Taft

#Men #Brotherhood #Fatherhood

As the Republican platforms says, the welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country.
-- William Howard Taft

#Country #Republican #Welfare

I am president now, and tired of being kicked around.
-- William Howard Taft

#Tired #President

The Masonic system represents a stupendous and beautiful fabric, founded on universal purity, to rule and direct our passions, to have faith and love in God, and charity toward man.
-- William Howard Taft

#Beautiful #Passion #Men

When the history of this period is written, [William Jennings] Bryan will stand out as one of the most remarkable men of his generation and one of the biggest political men of our country.
-- William Howard Taft

#Country #Men #Political

I prefer an income tax, but the truth is I am afraid of the discussion which will follow and the criticism which will ensue if there is an other division in the Supreme Court on the subject of the income tax. Nothing has injured the prestige of the Supreme Court more than that last decision, and I think that many of the most violent advocates of the income tax will be glad of the substitution in their hearts for the same reasons. I am going to push the Constitutional amendment, which will admit an income tax without questions, but I am afraid of it without such an amendment.
-- William Howard Taft

#Heart #Thinking #Decision

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.
-- William Howard Taft

#Fighting #Winning #Elements

Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.
-- William Howard Taft

#Rights #Self #People

Take away from the courts, if it could be taken away, the power to issue injunctions in labor disputes, and it would create a privileged class among the laborers and save the lawless among their number from a most needful remedy available to all men for the protection of their business interests against unlawful invasion.... The secondary boycott is an instrument of tyranny, and ought not to be made legitimate.
-- William Howard Taft

#Taken #Men #Class

He [Roosevelt] has made some speeches that indicate that he is going quite beyond anything that he advocated when he was in the White House, and has proposed a program which is absolutely impossible to carry out except by a revision of the Constitution.
-- William Howard Taft

#White #House #Speech

The policy of dollar diplomacy is one that appeals alike to idealistic humanitarian sentiments, to dictates of sound policy, and strategy, and to legitimate commercial aims.
-- William Howard Taft

#Sound #Dollars #Strategy

I don't know the man I admire more than [Charles Evans] Hughes. If ever I have the chance I shall offer him the Chief Justiceship.
-- William Howard Taft

#Men #Chance #He Man

What I am anxious to do is to get the best bill possible with the least amount of friction.... I wish to avoid [splitting our party]. I shall do all in my power to retain the corporation tax as it is now and also force a reduction of the [tariff] schedules. It is only when all other efforts fail that I'll resort to headlines and force the people into this fight.
-- William Howard Taft

#Party #Fighting #People

The prosperity of Masonry as a means of strengthening our religion and propagating true brotherly love, is one of the dearest wishes of my heart, which, I trust, will be gratified by the help of the Grand Architect of the Universe.
-- William Howard Taft

#Heart #Mean #Love Is

The judiciary has fallen to a very low state in this country. I think your part of the country has suffered especially. The federal judges of the South are a disgrace to any country, and I'll be damned if I put any man on the bench of whose character and ability there is the least doubt.
-- William Howard Taft

#Country #Character #Men

The Society or Fraternity of Freemasons is more in the nature of a system of Philosophy or of moral and social virtues taught by symbols, allegories, and lectures based upon fundamental truths, the observance of which tends to promote stability of character, conservatism, morality and good citizenship.
-- William Howard Taft

#Philosophy #Character #Fundamentals

The secrecy of Masonry is an honorable secrecy; any good man may ask for her secrets; those who are worthy will receive them. To give them to those who do not seek, or who are not worthy, would but impoverish the Fraternity and enrich not those who received them.
-- William Howard Taft

#Men #Giving #Secret

The secret of Masonry, like the secret of life, can be known only by those who seek it, serve it, live it. It cannot be uttered; it can only be felt and acted. It is, in fact, an open secret, and each man knows it according to his quest and capacity. Like all things worth knowing, no one can know it for another and no man can know it alone.
-- William Howard Taft

#Men #Knowing #Secret

The underlying principle of Masonry is the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. In this war we are engaging in upholding these principles and our enemies are attacking them.
-- William Howard Taft

#War #Men #Brotherhood

It is not impossible, of course, after such an administration as Roosevelt's and after the change in method that I could not but adapt in view of my different way of looking at things, that questions should arise as to whether I should go back on the principles of the Roosevelt administration.... I have a government of limited power under a Constitution, and we have got to work out our problems on the basis of law. Now, if that is reactionary, then I am a reactionary.
-- William Howard Taft

#Government #Views #Law

We are all dependent upon the investment of capital.
-- William Howard Taft

#Money #Investment

It gives me the greatest pleasure to say, as I do from the bottom of my heart, that never in the history of the country, in any crisis and under any conditions, have our Jewish fellow citizens failed to live up to the highest standards of citizenship and patriotism.
-- William Howard Taft

#Country #Heart #Giving

There is no "but" in it. The way to be an administration Senator is to vote with the Administration.
-- William Howard Taft

#Frustration #Way #Administration

The admission of Oriental immigrants who cannot be amalgamated with our people has been made the subject either of prohibitory clauses in our treaties and statutes or of strict administrative regulations secured by diplomatic negotiations. I sincerely hope that we may continue to minimize the evils likely to arise from such immigration without unnecessary friction and by mutual concessions between self-respecting governments.
-- William Howard Taft

#Government #Self #Evil

On the whole, yes, I would rather be the Chief Justice of the United States, and a quieter life than that which becomes at the White House is more in keeping with the temperament, but when taken into consideration that I go into history as President, and my children and my children's children are the better placed on account of that fact, I am inclined to think that to be President well compensates one for all the trials and criticisms he has to bear and undergo.
-- William Howard Taft

#Children #Taken #Thinking

People run away from the name subsidy. It is a subsidy. I am not afraid to call it so. It is paid for the purpose of giving a merchant marine to the whole country so that the trade of the whole country will be benefitted thereby, and the men running the ships will of course make a reasonable profit.... Unless we have a merchant marine, our navy if called upon for offensive or defensive work is going to be most defective.
-- William Howard Taft

#Running #Country #Marine

The diplomacy of the present administration has sought to respond to the modern idea of commercial intercourse. This policy has been characterized as substituting dollars for bullets.
-- William Howard Taft

#Ideas #Bullets #Administration

The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much.
-- William Howard Taft

#Too Much #Trouble

In the public interest, therefore, it is better that we lose the services of the exceptions who are good Judges after they are seventy and avoid the presence on the Bench of men who are not able to keep up with the work, or to perform it satisfactorily.
-- William Howard Taft

#Men #Judging #Benches

The truth is, the whole administration under Roosevelt was demoralized by the system of dealing directly with subordinates. It wasobviated in the State Department and the War Department under [Secretary of State Elihu] Root and me [Taft was the Secretary of War], because we simply ignored the interference and went on as we chose.... The subordinates gained nothing by his assumption of authority, but it was not so in the other departments.
-- William Howard Taft

#War #Roots #Taft

We have passed the time of ... the laisser-faire [sic] school which believes that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force.
-- William Howard Taft

#Running #Believe #School

I know this, and I know it from actual experience in the Orient, that the progress of modern Christian civilization has largely depended on the earnest hard work of the Christian missions of every denomination.
-- William Howard Taft

#Christian #Hard Work #Civilization

The truth is that in my present life I don't remember that I ever was president
-- William Howard Taft

#President #Remember #Truth Is

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

#Rain #Party #Clouds

The game of baseball is a clean, straight game, and it summons to its presence everybody who enjoys clean, straight athletics. It furnishes amusement to the thousands and thousands.
-- William Howard Taft

#Baseball #Games #Amusement

I sincerely hope that the incoming Congress will be alive, as it should be, to the importance of our foreign trade and of encouraging it in every way feasible. The possibility of increasing this trade in the Orient, in the Philippines, and in South America is known to everyone who has given the matter attention.
-- William Howard Taft

#America #Attention #Alive

I do not allow myself to be moved by anything except the law. If there has been a mistake in the law, or if I think there has beenperjury or injustice, I will weigh the petition most carefully, but I do not permit myself to be moved by more harrowing details, and I try to treat each case as if I was reviewing it or hearing it for the first time from the bench.
-- William Howard Taft

#Mistake #Thinking #Law

I am glad to be going. This is the lonesomest pace in the world?
-- William Howard Taft

#Presidential #World #Pace

I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the president is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town.
-- William Howard Taft

#Presidential #Towns #Tourists

Politics, when I am in it, it makes me sick.
-- William Howard Taft

#Sick #Politics

The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power in the Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined residuum of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest.
-- William Howard Taft

#Exercise #Power #President

I wish to reiterate all the reasons which [my predecessor] has presented in favor of the policy of maintaining a strong navy as the best conservator of our peace with other nations and the best means of securing respect for the assertion of our rights of the defense of our interests, and the exercise of our influence in international matters.
-- William Howard Taft

#Peace #Strong #Mean

My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.
-- William Howard Taft

#East #West Coast #World

We must dare to be great; and we must realize that greatness is the fruit of toil and sacrifice and high courage.
-- William Howard Taft

#Inspirational Life #Sacrifice #Greatness