THE PRESIDENCY
“My movements to the chair of government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike those of a culprit, who is going to the place of his execution.”
—GEORGE WASHINGTON
“No man who ever held the office of President would congratulate a friend on obtaining it. He will make one man ungrateful, a hundred men his enemies, for every office he can bestow.”
—JOHN ADAMS
“[I]t brings nothing but unceasing drudgery and daily loss of friends.”
—THOMAS JEFFERSON
“No man will ever bring out of the Presidency the reputation which carries him into it.”
—THOMAS JEFFERSON
“I would much rather be in bed.”
—JAMES MADISON, at his inauguration
“I can say with truth mine is a situation of dignified slavery.”
—ANDREW JACKSON
“The President’s power is negative merely, and not affirmative. He can enact no law.”
—JAMES K. POLK
“No President who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure.”
—JAMES K. POLK
“I never wanted to get out of a place as much as I did to get out of the presidency.”
—ULYSSES S. GRANT
“I am heartily tired of this life of bondage, responsibility, and toil. I wish it was at an end.”
—RUTHERFORD B. HAYES
“The President is the last person in the world to know what the people really want and think.”
—JAMES GARFIELD
“My God, what is there in this place that a man should ever want to get in it?”
—JAMES GARFIELD
“Four years of this kind of intellectual dissipation may cripple me for the remainder of my life.”
—JAMES GARFIELD
“I’m making a strange wish for you, little man; a wish I suppose no one else would make. I wish for you that you may never be President of the United States.”
—GROVER CLEVELAND, on meeting a young Franklin D. Roosevelt
“I have often thought that the life of the President is like that of the policeman in the opera, not a happy one.”
—BENJAMIN HARRISON
“No other President ever enjoyed the Presidency as I did.”
—THEODORE ROOSEVELT
“I’ll be damned if I am not getting tired of this. It seems to be the profession of a President simply to hear other people talk.”
—WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
“I have come to the conclusion that the major part of the work of a President is to increase the gate receipts of expositions and fairs and bring tourists to town.”
—WILLIAM HOWARD TAFT
“This White House is a prison. I can’t get away from the men who dog my footsteps. I am in jail.”
—WARREN G. HARDING
“In the discharge of the duties of this office, there is one rule of action more important than all others. It consists in never doing anything that someone else can do for you.”
—CALVIN COOLIDGE
“Many years ago I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The President differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.”
—HERBERT HOOVER
“Why in hell does anybody want to be a head of state? Damned if I know.”
—HARRY TRUMAN
“Being a president is like riding a tiger. A man has to keep riding or be swallowed.”
—HARRY TRUMAN
“All the President is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”
—HARRY TRUMAN
“When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.”
—RICHARD NIXON
“The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.”
—RONALD REAGAN
“There are always going to be people who want to be President, and some days I’d like to give it to them.”
—BILL CLINTON
“Being President is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.”
—BILL CLINTON
“With the exception of the late, great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that’s ever held this office.”
—DONALD TRUMP