William Safire Quotes

Presidents fall into second-term slumps for different reasons.

We need a Donald Trump more than we've ever needed anybody since George Washington.

The first term of the Clinton administration was very jolly. Everybody was running around meeting people and of course, in the second term, everyone went down the black hole, which also happened at the end of the Reagan administration.

After being Washington's aide for four years and becoming the hero of Yorktown, Hamilton was viewed with a great deal of suspicion because of his association with Tories.

I walked out of Spielberg's 'Lincoln' having such a thirst for more. It used such a microscopic albeit enormous event in American history. It used such a small piece of his presidency to illustrate him as a president through the lens of that event.

Messrs. Washington and Lincoln faced enormous difficulties, but they both gave their lives to make sure America survived.

The first president I met was L. B. J.

My favourite president, and the one I admired most, was Harry Truman.

American presidential leadership never goes out of style.

Measured by any standard, white or black, Washington must be regarded today as one of the great men of this country: and in the future he will be so honored.

Barack Obama is the most antibusiness president in a generation, perhaps in American history.

Four years of Jimmy Carter gave us two titanic Reagan landslides, peace and prosperity for eight blessed years - and even a third term for his feckless vice president, George H.W. Bush.

There were dragons to slay in the old days. Nixon was a good dragon.

The Cincinnatus of the West, Whom envy dared not hate, Bequeathed the name of Washington To make man blush there was but one!

I intend to withdraw after my second term. General Washington set the example. I will follow.

I will make a prophecy that may now sound peculiar. In fifty years Lincoln's name will be inscribed close to Washington's on this Republic's roll of honor.

Every first-term president has to learn something after he comes into office. Nobody can be completely ready for the inevitable crises.

I did not expect to encounter what has beset me since my elevation to the presidency. God knows, I have endeavored to fulfill what I considered to be an honest duty, but I have been mistaken; my motives have been misconstrued and my feelings grossly betrayed.

Having stared into the abyss of what it actually means for your life to be the leader of a political party, I'm just full of admiration and respect for anyone who wants to do it.

During the years of my presidency, I lived a tough and difficult life.

Once you choose to run for president of the United States and succeed, your earlier life, your biography, is a major part of American history.

In America, we may acknowledge Washington and Lincoln as great men, and probably Franklin and Jefferson and maybe Franklin Delano Roosevelt and possibly even several more, but we would probably disagree about precisely what it was that made them great, what it was that enabled them to give a lasting direction to the course of events.

It is hard for anyone who discovers George Washington not to write about him, perhaps because he is so hard to discover and such a surprise when you do.

If President Obama were to enroll in an American government class, the professor would mark him absent on most days. In the first 100 days of his second term, the president has failed to show up to class, take notes and complete the daunting task of rising to the challenges facing him.

Without doubt, President [Barack] Obama is a great historical figure.