Jimmy Carter famous quotes

Jesus never said a word about homosexuality. In all of his teachings about multiple things - he never said that gay people should be condemned. I personally think it is very fine for gay people to be married in civil ceremonies.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Jesus #Teaching #Gay

America has always been a country of innovation and dynamism, entrepreneurship. And I think that one of the things that has made our country great too is its heterogeneous population where people come here from all over the world.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #Thinking #America

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Inspirational #Real #Patriotic

There is no other even moderately equal abuse than the murder of little baby girls - nothing else compares with that, in horror.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Girl #Baby #Abuse

I have one life and one chance to make it count for something... My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Differences #Long #Generosity

My mother's influence to take on new challenges and do what I though was right even though sometimes the consequences politically speaking were not good. My mother was vivacious, she was full of life, she got up every morning looking forward to the day, trying to figure out what she could do that was innovative and unprecedented and maybe controversial.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Mother #Morning #Challenges

Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Running #Important #Care

I'm concerned about the negative aspect of political campaigning in american nation, which is a new phenomenon. When I ran for president against Gerald Ford and later against Ronald Reagan we never referred to each other except as 'my distinguished opponent'. And had we criticised personally our opponent it would have been political suicide, we would have been castigated and condemned for it.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Suicide #Political #President

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Peace #Children #War

I have a very real political awareness that at least on a transient basis the more drastic action taken by the president, the more popular it is.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Real #Taken #Political

The bottom line is this: Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of a majority of its own citizens - and honor its own previous commitments - by accepting its legal borders. All Arab neighbors must pledge to honor Israel's right to live in peace under these conditions.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Commitment #Government #Israel

There's always enough to fill up the headlines in a newspaper, the evening news broadcasts. I'm always grateful when I get the weekly news magazines on Monday morning and don't see my picture on the front.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Monday #Morning #Grateful

Because (grandparents) are usually free to love and guide and befriend the young without having to take daily responsibility for them, they can often reach out past pride and fear of failure and close the space between generations.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Responsibility #Pride #Past

It's abominable, and it's a disgrace to a great democracy to see what's happened in our country. The main reason for that has been the enormous infusion of high quantities of money to campaigns - governors, Congress, president and the U.S. Senate.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #Democracy #President

America has no functioning democracy at this moment.
-- Jimmy Carter

#America #Democracy #Moments

I'm going to stay active as long as I can politically, and with the Carter Center primarily, and if I'm able mentally and physically, will continue to be quite active.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Long #Able #Carter

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Inspirational #Peace #Children

Always I'm working on some of book. That's the way I make a living.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Book #Way

We become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Beautiful #Dream #America

One of the most serious problems that our country has inherited an unwillingness to talk to anyone who disagrees with us or who won't accept, before a discussion, all the premises that we demand.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #Demand #Serious

Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Rights #Support #Half

We have been involved in more wars, on a bilateral basis, since the United Nations was formed than any other country by far.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #War #United Nations

We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Faith #Confidence #America

The respect for human rights is one of the most significant advantages of a free and democratic nation in the peaceful struggle for influence, and we should use this good weapon as effectively as possible.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Freedom #Struggle #Rights

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Doors #Decision #Political

If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying that you want a country based on Christian values. Because you don't!
-- Jimmy Carter

#Christian #Country #Dollars

The heart and mind of every Muslim is affected by whether or not the Israel-Palestine issue is dealt with fairly.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Heart #Israel #Issues

It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Inspirational #Life #Beauty

We've become increasingly addicted to consumption of goods that we don't produce ourselves, and a lot of the manufacturing has gone overseas.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Gone #Produce #Goods

We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Peace #War #Memorable

We've lost an edge that we used to have in scientific innovation applications to goods to be sold. In many ways, that is also changing in the electronic field. Almost all of the materials that we use now are of advanced technology, I have an iPad and also an iPod, both of which are made in China. Although we have designed them here with Apple, for instance, they are manufactured overseas.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Technology #Ipads #Apples

We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Inspirational #Change #Presidential

America has had the best university system in the world for a long time. And so we have been innovators, not only in the discoveries as proven by Nobel Prizes in chemistry and physics and that sort of thing, but we've been able to put that into practical application with new gadgets that people admire.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Discovery #America #Long

It's not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Inspirational #Morning #Failure

Quite often, the people who do leave their own nation and come to an unknown destination, like the United States, are inherently adventurous, so we've had that adventurous spirit that has embedded itself collectively in the American consciousness.
-- Jimmy Carter

#People #United States #Spirit

Spirit is like the wind, in that we can't see it but can see its effects, which are profound.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Wind #Profound #Spirit

No matter where you go in the world in any country in Africa or Latin America and other place, you will find that China is very deeply involved in the affairs of that country.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #Latin #America

I’m not in favor of the government mandating a prayer in school because our country was founded on the fact that no particular religious faith would have ascendance over or preferential treatment over any other.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #Religious #Prayer

I think a good husband has to depend on having a good wife.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Husband #Thinking #Wife

The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Health #Marijuana #Destiny

I don't believe that China, in my lifetime or maybe my children's lifetime, be equal to the United States militarily speaking, but they are very careful to avoid any engagement in war, they are basically a peaceful country, which gives them another advantage over the United States when we are much more inclined to go to war for various reasons.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #Children #War

The United States...has a warm and a unique relationship of friendship with Israel that is morally right. It is compatible with our deepest religious convictions, and it is right in terms of America's own strategic interests. We are committed to Israel's security, prosperity, and future as a land that has so much to offer the world.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Religious #Unique #Land

People in the United States, including me, are naturally inclined to support Israel. I'm an evangelical Christian who teaches the Bible every Sunday at my church. I teach half the Old Testament and half the New Testament. We Americans identify the Hebrews, the Israelites, with ourselves.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Christian #Sunday #Israel

There should be an honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting to combat.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Peace #War #Differences

It would be almost politically suicidal for members of Congress to espouse a balanced position between Israel and Palestine, to suggest that Israel comply with international law or to speak in defense of justice or human rights for Palestinians. If they did so, they couldn't be reelected.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Suicidal #Rights #Israel

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it's so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Hate #Teaching #Complacency

I think the only way that political system can be corrected is for the American people to see very vividly that it needs repair. If things are going to worse in the future, the American people, in every congressional district in the land, might demand that reforms take place in the political system.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Thinking #Land #People

Too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Self #Racism #Gay Marriage

In the United States, you might say every county has got its own separate system. There's not even one kind of ballot that you use all over the United States. We require that in a foreign country.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #United States #Use

We are of course a nation of differences. Those differences don't make us weak. They're the source of our strength.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Life #Strength #Differences

"Solid wastes" are the discarded leftovers of our advanced consumer society. This growing mountain of garbage and trash represents not only an attitude of indifference toward valuable natural resources, but also a serious economic and public health problem.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Attitude #Mountain #Growing

With this new stupid Supreme Court ruling, secret money can come in on an unlimited level from corporations. Nobody knows where it comes from. That distorts the political situation in our country tremendously. Most of that money is spent on negative advertising that is tearing down the character and reputation of your opponent, and it works, although most American people say, "We don't like negative advertising," it works.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Country #Stupid #Character

You just have to have a simple faith.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Faith #Simple

I think I governed effectively. I don't have any doubts about that. I had the benefit, when I was in office, of having an excellent relationship with the Republican Party. We had superb bipartisan support and we had the highest batting average of any president since the Second World War, except Lyndon Johnson. He had a little better average than I did.
-- Jimmy Carter

#War #Party #Thinking

The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend on it.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Powerful #Government #Justice

I let God be the judge and I believe that we worship a just and fair God who won't punish innocent people unnecessarily.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Letting Go #Believe #People

Everyone has a right to peaceful coexistence, the basic personal freedoms, the alleviation of suffering, and the opportunity to lead a productive life...
-- Jimmy Carter

#Freedom #Opportunity #Peaceful

I've been an evangelistic Baptist all my life and still am to some degree.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Degrees #Baptists #Stills

If you have a task to perform and are vitally interested in it, excited and challenged by it, and then you will exert maximum energy. But in the excitement, the pain of fatigue dissipates, and the exuberance of what you hope to achieve overcomes the weariness.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Inspirational #Pain #Overcoming

Christians are supposed to be evangelicals. And I am. I am evangelical.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Christian #Evangelical

Failure is a reality; we all fail at times, and it's painful when we do. But it's better to fail while striving for something wonderful, challenging, adventurous, and uncertain than to say, " I don't want to try because I may not succeed completely.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Failure #Reality #Challenges

I believe that we are saved by the grace of God because he loves us provided that we have faith in Jesus Christ.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Jesus #Believe #Grace

When we go to the Bible we should keep in mind that the basic principles of the Bible are taught by God, but written down by human beings deprived of modern day knowledge. So there is some fallibility in the writings of the Bible. But the basic principles are applicable to my life and I don't find any conflict among them.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Writing #Mind #Taught

I believe strongly that in the eyes of God women and men should be the same and they should be given the same authority in the church, women should as men.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Believe #Eye #Men

In a nuclear age, each of us is threatened when peace is not secured everywhere.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Peace #Age #Nuclear

I think the most challenging thing for me in my life and in the Bible is that we worship Jesus as the Prince of Peace.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Jesus #Thinking #Challenges

Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of ***** in private for personal use... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce [28g] of marijuana.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Marijuana #Law #Support

The world is safer without Saddam [Hussein]. Certainly the people of Iraq are better without Saddam.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Iraq #People #World

Go out on a limb. That's where the fruit is.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Inspirational #Life #Risk

When people first vote for democracy, they have extremely high hopes, excessive expectations, and they're not realized. They don't instantly get richer and the schools don't instantly get better and the garbage isn't instantly picked up quicker. So they get disillusioned.
-- Jimmy Carter

#School #People #Expectations

I believe that anyone can be successful in life, regardless of natural talent or the environment within which we live. This is not based on measuring success by human competitiveness for wealth, possessions, influence, and fame, but adhering to God's standards of truth, justice, humility, service, compassion, forgiveness, and love.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Believe #Humility #Successful

The Bible and studying the Bible has been an important part of my life.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Important #Study

Every act of energy conservation... is more than just common sense: I tell you it is an act of patriotism.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Common Sense #Energy #Conservation

A lot of the things that we passed in the energy policy were embedded in law, and they resulted in tremendous reductions in waste of energy in all kinds of things.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Law #Energy #Waste

When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Hands #People #Opinion

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Religious #Selfish #Teaching

I'm a peanut farmer at heart, still grow peanuts on my farm in Georgia.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Heart #Georgia #Peanuts

We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century. During the period we may be tempted to abandon some of the time-honored principles and commitments which have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation. Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities - not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Patriotic #Commitment #Past

God always answers prayers. Sometimes it's 'yes.' Sometimes the answer is 'no.' Sometimes it's 'you gotta be kidding.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Prayer #Answers #Sometimes

Communicating our questions, hopes, and fears in prayer makes them-even to ourselves-more open and clear...
-- Jimmy Carter

#Prayer #Communicate #Clear

It was the darndest thing I've ever seen. It was big, it was very bright, it changed colors and it was about the size of the moon.. We watched it for ten minutes, but none of us could figure out what it was. One thing's for sure, I'll never make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects in the sky.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Fun #Moon #Sky

Throughout my life, I've seen the difference that volunteering efforts can make in people's lives. I know the personal value of service as a local volunteer.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Differences #People #Volunteer

To me, Faith is not just a noun but also a verb
-- Jimmy Carter

#Verbs #Nouns

Habitat has opened up unprecedented opportunities for me to cross the chasm that separates those of us who are free, safe, financially secure, well fed and housed, and influential enough to shape our own destiny from our neighbors who enjoy few, if any, of these advantages of life.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Opportunity #Destiny #Habitat

We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes - and we must.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Suffering #Working Together #Together

In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary first to dehumanize our opponents, which is in itself a violation of the beliefs of all religions. Once we characterize our adversaries as beyond the scope of God's mercy and grace, their lives lose all value.
-- Jimmy Carter

#War #Order #Grace

Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of ... permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Running #Oil #Energy

We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources. By acting now we can control our future instead of letting the future control us.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Acting #Balance #Energy

Energy will be the immediate test of our ability to unite this Nation, and it can also be the standard around which we rally. On the battlefield of energy we can win for our Nation a new confidence, and we can seize control again of our common destiny.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Winning #Destiny #Energy

Wherever life takes us, there are always moments of wonder.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Wonder #Moments

The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Citizens #Poverty #Treats

America does not at the moment have a functioning democracy.
-- Jimmy Carter

#America #Democracy #Doe

Our values are not luxuries, but necessities. They are not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Luxury #Salt #Bread

We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Two #Long #Peaceful

What are the things that you can't see that are important? I would say justice, truth, humility, service, compassion, love...They're the guiding lights of a life.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Humility #Compassion #Helping Others

Habitat gives us an opportunity which is very difficult to find: to reach out and work side by side with those who never have had a decent home-but work with them on a completely equal basis. It's not a big-shot, little-shot relationship. It's a sense of equality.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Home #Opportunity #Giving

Many of the most highly publicized events of my presidency are not nearly as memorable or significant in my life as fishing with my daddy.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Memorable #Fishing #Daddy

For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty is human rights, the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Life #Spiritual #Patriotic

If you're totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day, the benefits of globalization never come to you.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Memorable #Dollars #Benefits

Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world.
-- Jimmy Carter

#Nice #Patriotic #Memorable