Quotes from Jimmy Carter

We have been involved in more wars, on a bilateral basis, since the United Nations was formed than any other country by far.

Even for the world's only superpower, the ends don't always justify the means.

And so I say to you and to others around the world, whether they wish us well or ill - do not underestimate us Americans. We lack neither strength nor wisdom.

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.

(Doctors) collectively have done more to block adequate medical care for people of this country than any other single group.

We all know grandparents whose values transcend passing fads and pressures, and who possess the wisdom of distilled pain and joy.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.

[on the Republican party] A party with a narrow vision, a party that is afraid of the future.

A fundamentalist can't bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human right violation on earth.

When men in secular life, who might be religious or not, see women being treated as secondary in the eyes of God, they assume that it's OK for them to do it.

I believe strongly that in the eyes of God women and men should be the same and they should be given the same authority in the church, women should as men.

Within the stable economy it's necessary to eliminate all forms of sexual discrimination, and to provide women for the first time in our history with economic opportunities equal to those of men.

There's no doubt that the Christian right has gone to bed with the more conservative elements of the Republican Party. And there's been a melding in their goals when it comes to the separation of church and state. I've always believed in the separation of church and state.

I see an America in which Martin Luther King's dream is our national dream.

I thought then, and I think now, that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false.

Unfortunately, after Sept. 11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous.

I don't want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He's a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach.

We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes - and we must.

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close knit communities, and our faith in God , too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption .

At the Carter Center we work with victims of oppression, and we give support to human rights heroes.

I don't think that the total creation took place in six days as we now measure time. If we can confirm, say, the Big Bang theory, that doesn't at all cause me to question my faith that God created the Big Bang.

It's not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.

My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now that when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.