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Rutherford B. Hayes Quotes

1822–1893 United States

Rutherford Birchard Hayes (October 4, 1822 – January 17, 1893) was the 19th president of the United States (1877–1881). As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction, began the efforts that led to civil service reform, and attempted to reconcile the divisions left over from the Civil War and Reconstruction.

United States
Lawyers
Methodists
Politicians

Also known as: Hayes, Rutherford B., Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Random Rutherford B. Hayes quote

57 quotes

We people in camp are merely big children, wayward and changeable.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

I feel the desire to be with you all the time.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise. We can recover from them. The free States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a glorious nation.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

As knowledge spreads, wealth spreads. To diffuse knowledge is to diffuse wealth. To give all an equal chance to acquire knowledge is the best and surest way to give all an equal chance to acquire property.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

Unjust attacks on public men do them more good than unmerited praise. They are hurt less by undeserved censure than by undeserved commendation. Abuse helps; often praise hurts.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

Abolish plutocracy if you would abolish poverty. As millionaires increase, pauperism grows. The more millionaires, the more paupers.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

I hope you will be benefitted by your churchgoing. Where the habit does not Christianize, it generally civilizes. That is reason enough for supporting churches, if there were no higher.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

Coming in, I was denounced as a fraud by all the extreme men of the opposing party, and as an ingrate and a traitor by the same class of men in my own party. Going out, I have the good will, blessings, and approval of the best people of all parties and sections.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

Torpedoes in His Path: Can he, with that load, get through without exploding them?

Do not let your bachelor ways crystallize so that you can’t soften them when you come to have a wife and a family of your own.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

In avoiding the appearance of evil, I am not sure but I have sometimes unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyments.

and His America (1954)

You use the phrase “brutal Rebels.” Don’t be cheated in that way. There are enough “brutal Rebels” no doubt, but we have brutal officers and men too.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

Is there anything in which the people of this age and country differ more from those of other lands and former times than in this — their ability to preserve order and protect rights without the aid of government?

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

For honest merit to succeed amid the tricks and intrigues which are now so lamentably common, I know is difficult; but the honor of success is increased by the obstacles which are to be surmounted. Let me triumph as a man or not at all.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

The unrestricted competition so commonly advocated does not leave us the survival of the fittest. The unscrupulous succeed best in accumulating wealth.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

The man who thinks that the perpetuity of slavery is essential to the existence of the Union, is unfit to be trusted. The deadliest enemy the Union has is slavery — in fact, its only enemy.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

Partisanship should be kept out of the pulpit... The blindest of partisans are preachers. All politicians expect and find more candor, fairness, and truth in politicians than in partisan preachers.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

The only road, the sure road to unquestioned credit and a sound financial condition is the exact and punctual fulfilment of every pecuniary obligation, public and private, according to its letter and spirit.

As to Mr. Lincoln’s name and fame and memory, — all is safe.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

General Crook gave me a very agreeable present this afternoon — a pair of his old brigadier-general straps.

Diary and Letters of Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1922)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Rutherford B. Hayes (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.