Quotes about High Office

Harry S. Truman

He’s one of the few men in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

George T. Conway III

Americans should expect far more from a president than merely that he not be provably a criminal. They should expect a president to comport himself in accordance with the high duties of his office.

John Podhoretz

The presidency is not an entry-level electoral job.

Philip A. Hart

I have been told for years by among others, some of my own family, that this is exactly what the Bureau was doing all the time, and in my great wisdom and high office, I assured them that ... it just wasn't true. It couldn't happen. They wouldn't do it .... The trick now ... is for this Committee to be able to figure out how to persuade the people of this country that indeed it did go on. And how shall we insure that is will never happen again?

Senate hearings disclosed that the FBI was using illegal tactics in many of its activities:

Richard V. Allen

In general, any incoming administration must carefully examine ('vet') its nominees for high public office.

Samuel Johnston

It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans (Muslims), pagans, etc., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States. Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President or other high office, (unless) first the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves.

Donna Brazile

If you're a Supreme Court justice, the American people have elevated you to one of the highest offices in the land out of the goodness of their heart and out of deference to your legal wisdom. You get a lifetime appointment, limitless prestige, a great office, and what I have to assume is a very comfortable chair.

Jimmie Johnson

I've met a handful of presidents, from Jimmy Carter to Bill Clinton to George Bush to Barack Obama.

Robert Moses

Our overbuilt cities with their congestion, their trend to high office buildings and apartments, their complete indifference to the most elementary principles of civilian defense, their slums representing past neglect and greed, can to a considerable extent be rebuilt on better principles if we are smart enough to look the facts in the eye and brush off the Babbitts who hold that wherever the dirt flies there is progress. On the other hand, cities can not be revolutionized and turned into garden villages or green belts. In the suburbs and near-by country, however, we still have a chance to do the right thing without stultifying compromises....

Moses became the greatest “builder” the world had ever known. The Bridges and tunnels into New York, the highways in the city and Long Island, the development of Fire Island and the World Trade Center were all his work. Babbitt was a very large building and construction contractor. The Cold War was ongoing and his reference to civilian defense was an absurd notion of the 1950s that building bomb shelters in cities and homes could protect the civilian population in the event of nuclear attack. This was actually an official government position and program.

William Weld

It's healthy for government to be a kind of moral catalyst, using the bully pulpit of high office.

Subramanian Swamy

The RBI governor post is very high in the Warrant of Precedence and requires a patriotic and unconditional commitment to our nation.

William Jones Lowndes

The Presidency is not an office to be either solicited or declined.

Before Theodore Roosevelt, American Presidential Candidates had to pretend that they did not seek the presidency and remain passive. However Roosevelt changed that norm and the primary elections, taking the nomination away from a few party leaders, further required Presidential aspirants to campaign. The principle Lomdes articulated was that if called upon, one was obligated to serve, but should not overtly seek the position and wait to be called by the people.

John Bolton

Don't get me wrong: I would love to be president.

William Odom

I will make a general statement that we have not had anything like the policy of holding people in high office responsible for their acts that I think we should.

Nostradamus

The sudden death of the leading man will cause change, making another man leader. Soon, but too late, the young man will attain high office. By land and sea, he will be feared.

Tony Abbott

It is a very heavy responsibility [to be a prime-minister] to make, but someone has to make it for our country and I am thrilled and honoured to have that opportunity and that responsibility.

Walter F. Mondale

When I was a young man, I used to dream maybe someday I could be an alderman. Instead of that I became an attorney general, a senator, a vice president, a Democratic nominee.