Herbert Hoover Quotes - Page 4

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

The future of nations cannot be frozen . . . cannot be foreseen. If we are going to accomplish anything in our time we must approach our problem in the knowledge that there is nothing rigid or immutable in human affairs. History is a story of growth, decay and change. If no provision, no allowance is made for change by peaceful means, it will come anyway - and with violence.

It is well to remember that the office of Chief Executive is in part a symbol of the nation and that leaders in a nation may differ in their own house but they have instant solidarity in the presence of foreign attack

A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus.

I am firmly opposed to the government entering into any business the major purpose of which is competition with our citizens... for the Federal Government deliberately to go out to build up and expand... a power and manufacturing business is to break down the initiative and enterprise of the American people; it is the destruction of equality of opportunity amongst our people, it is the negation of the ideals upon which our civilization has been based.

Children add to the wonder of being alive.

While I can make no claim for having introduced the term "rugged individualism," I should be proud to have invented it. It has been used by American leaders for over a half-century in eulogy of those God-fearing men and women of honesty whose stamina and character and fearless assertion of rights led them to make their own way in life.

Fishing is more than fish; it is the vitalizing lure to outdoor life.

Economic depression can not be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement.

I am convinced that ... we have reestablished confidence. Wages should remain stable. A very large degree of industrial unemployment and suffering which would otherwise have occurred has been prevented.

Governments know that the life of the world cannot be saved if the soul of the world is allowed to be lost.

I come of Quaker stock. My ancestors were persecuted for their beliefs. Here they sought and found religious freedom. By blood and conviction I stand for religious tolerance both in act and in spirit.

The supreme purpose of history is a better world.

Along with currency manipulation, the New Deal introduced to Americans the spectacle of Fascist dictation to business, labor, and agriculture.

Let me remind you that credit is the lifeblood of business, the lifeblood of prices and jobs.

True American Liberalism utterly denies the whole creed of socialism.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

Our social and economic system cannot march toward better days unless it is inspired by things of the Spirit. It is here that the higher purposes of individualism must find their sustenance.

There are only two occasions when Americans respect privacy, especially in Presidents. Those are prayer and fishing.

Lots of people committed crimes during the year who would not have done so if they had been fishing. The increase of crime is among those deprived of the regenerations that impregnate the mind and character of the fisherman.

There is no more cruel illusion than that war makes a people richer.

When the outcome of a meeting is to have another meeting, it has been a lousy meeting.

To the engineer falls the job of clothing the bare bones of science with life, comfort, and hope.

No prosaic description can portray the grandeur of 40 miles of rugged mountains rising beyond a placid lake in which each shadowy precipice and each purple gorge is reflected with a vividness that rivals the original.

My boyhood ambition was to be able to earn my own living, without the help of anybody, anywhere.