Quotes from George H. W. Bush

I think in defeat you grope for things that are happy, and it's hard.

No generation can escape history.

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.

The anchor in our world today is freedom, holding us steady in times of change, a symbol of hope to all the world.

I hope I stand for antibigotry, anti-Semitism, antiracism. This is what drives me.

We don't think of ourselves as a dynasty. I really hope some of my grandkids will be actively involved in politics.

Be bold in your caring, and be bold in your dreaming.

We don't want an America that is closed to the world. What we want is a world that is open to America.

I think I'd be a better president because I was in combat.

I have survivor's curiosity, I guess.

Power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive. And it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.

Don't confuse being 'soft' with seeing the other guy's point of view.

What's wrong with being a boring kind of guy?

We are not here to enjoy the things on earth, but to pass them around. The people who do it are the happiest people you know!

For 18 years I have resisted talking about current events. I am not going to start now.

Read my lips: no new taxes.

It's a very good question, very direct, and I'm not going to answer it.

I have a form of Parkinson's disease, which I don't like. My legs don't move when my brain tells them to. It's very frustrating.

But the biggest thing that has happened in the world in my life, in our lives, is this: By the grace of God, America won the Cold War.

The American way of life is not negotiable.

Poland should be strong and prosperous and independent and play its proper role as a great nation in the heart of Europe.

I know my serve stinks, but I was a pretty good tennis player.

This is a fact: Strength in the pursuit of peace is no vice; isolation in the pursuit of security is no virtue.

I believe with all my heart that one cannot be America's president without a belief in God, without the strength that your faith gives you.