Quotes from Herbert Hoover

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

The greatness of America has grown out of a political and social system and a method of control of economic forces distinctly its own - our American system.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

Wisdom consists not so much in knowing what to do in the ultimate as in knowing what to do next.

There are only three ways to meet the unpaid bills of a nation. The first is taxation. The second is repudiation. The third is inflation.

Free government is the most difficult of all government. But it is everlastingly true that the plain people will make fewer mistakes than any other group of men, no matter how powerful.

With impressive proof on all sides of magnificent progress, no one can rightly deny the fundamental correctness of our economic system.

Freedom does not die from frontal attack. It dies because men in power no longer believe in a system based upon liberty.

Freedom conceives that the mind and spirit of man can be free only if he be free to pattern his own life, to develop his own talents, free to earn, to spend, to save, to acquire property as the security of his old age and his family.

Next to religion, baseball has had a greater impact on our American way of life than any other American institution.

The advancement of knowledge must be translated into increasing health and education for the children.

Economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.

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

Engineering without imagination sinks to a trade.

It is obvious that while science is struggling to bring Heaven to earth some men are using its materials in the construction of Hell.

Along this road of spending, the government either takes over, which is Socialism, or dictates institutional and economic life, which is Fascism.

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

At 17, I went to Stanford University to study engineering. My time was occupied with the required reading and the extracurricular duties of managing the baseball and football teams and earning my way.

It is those moral and spiritual qualities which rise alone in free men, which will fulfill the meaning of the word American. And with them will come centuries of further greatness to our country.

Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers.

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

Peace can be promoted by the limitation of arms and by the creation of the instrumentality for peaceful settlement of controversies. But it will become a reality only through self-restraint and active effort in friendliness and helpfulness.