Quotes from William Howard Taft

I love judges, and I love courts. They are my ideals, that typify on earth what we shall meet hereafter in heaven under a just God.

We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken without developing new evils requiring new remedies.

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.

Politics makes me sick.

One cannot always be sure of the truth of what one hears if he happens to be President of the United States.

The truth is that in my present life I don't remember that I ever was president.

If this humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.

I think I might as well give up being a candidate. There are so many people in the country who don't like me.

The trouble with me is that I like to talk too much.

Some men are graduated from college cum laude, some are graduated summa cum laude, and some are graduated mirabile dictu.

What I am anxious to do is to secure my legislation.... What I want to do is to get through that, and if I can point to a record of usefulness of that kind, I am entirely willing to quit office.

The underlying principle of Masonry is the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. In this war we are engaging in upholding these principles and our enemies are attacking them.

Enthusiasm for a cause sometimes warps judgment.

The Masonic system represents a stupendous and beautiful fabric, founded on universal purity, to rule and direct our passions, to have faith and love in God, and charity toward man.

We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.

Golf in the interest of good health and good manners. It promotes self-restraint and affords a chance to play the man and act the gentleman.

I think his greatest fault is his failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done. This is a great weakness in any man.

I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade with each becomes more valuable to the other.

The true Mason does not hold or teach the attitude that, I am a Master Mason now and thus I no longer need to be concerned with using the working tools because they were given in the earlier degrees.

I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.

Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that today is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.

A system in which we may have an enforced rest from legislation for two years is not bad.