Jimmy Carter

James Earl Carter, Jr.

(born October 1, 1924) American Politician, 39th President of the United States; winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize

• We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.
  • Speech in March 1976

• I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.
  • Interview in Playboy magazine (1976), while a candidate for President.

• 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.
  • Farewell Address 1980

• Iraq is an unjust war. (spoken on the Diane Rehm Show; stated in articles written for NY Times; printed in USA Today)

• This war has been motivated by pride or arrogance, by a desire to control oil wealth, by a desire to implant our programs. (on the Diane Rehm Show.

• We are completely in bed with the Israelis to the detriment of the wellbeing of the Palestinians. (spoken on the Diane Rehm Show.)

• Ultimately, the basic issue is whether America will provide global leadership that springs from the unity and the integrity of the American people, or whether extremist doctrines, the manipulation of the truth, will define America's role in the world. At stake is nothing less than our nation's soul. But I am not discouraged. I really am not. I do not despair for our country. I never do. I believe, as I always have, the essential decency and compassion and common sense of the American people will prevail.
  • Democratic National Convention 2004

Attributed:

• A spirit that permeates the universe, the essence of truth, nature, being, life, indescribable concepts which are trivialized when expressed in words. (defining God)

• A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.

• Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.

• America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

• An avenue to God, an example, a guide, and a source of reassurance, strength, and wisdom. (defining Christ)

• For the first time in the history of our country the majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years.

• 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.

• 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.

• Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

• Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.

• I don't, however, see anything wrong with Christians, Muslims, and Jews exhibiting their own faith in the political arena. Christ tried to change the society within which he lived. He didn't hold public office and wouldn't have. But you don't have to hold public office to try to change the basic policies of a country.

• I look forward to these confrontations with the press to kind of balance up the nice and pleasant things that come to me as president.

• I personally feel the Bible says all people are equal in the eyes of God. I personally feel that women should play an absolutely equal role in service of Christ in the church.

• If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

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

• In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: 'We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.'

• 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.

• Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

• Prayer helps me to analyze the problem I face and to understand myself. It opens up a very important healing process. In my prayers I ask myself three key questions: 1. Are the goals I am pursuing appropriate? 2. Am I doing the right thing, based on my personal moral code, and, 3. Have I done my best, based on the alternatives open to me?

• Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

• The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation.

• The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

• The government ought to stay out of the prayer business.

• The obvious answer is to follow the standards and the priorities that were established so clearly by the words and actions of Jesus Christ, who was dedicated to justice, peace, humility, service, compassion, and love. I would put an emphasis at this moment among Christians on forgiveness and accommodation.

• There was promulgation of false propaganda by the administration about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There was promulgation of false propaganda about Iraq as a base for Al Qaeda.

• To deal with individual human needs at the everyday level can be noble sometimes.

• To me faith is not just a noun but also a verb.

• Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.

• 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.

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

• We've uncovered some embarrassing ancestors in the not-too-distant past. Some horse thieves, and some people killed on Saturday nights. One of my relatives, unfortunately, was even in the newspaper business.

• Wherever life takes us, there are always moments of wonder.

• With increasing maturity, I have learned to understand the fallibilities of ourselves and others, to forgive. Forgiveness is a basic foundation of my faith. It's through this exchange of criticism, based on mutual understanding and forgiveness, that we are able to grow.

• You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.

• You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I've never detected any conflict between God's will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.