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William Howard Taft Quotes
1857–1930 United States
William Howard Taft (15 September 1857 – 8 March 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and 10th chief justice of the United States (1921–1930). He also served as an associate judge on the Sixth Circuit, Governor-General of the Philippines, Secretary of War to Theodore Roosevelt and Solicitor General.
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Substantial progress toward better things can rarely be taken with out developing new evils requiring new remedies.
Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers (1916)
The welfare of the farmer is vital to that of the whole country.
If humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.
The world is not going to be saved by legislation.
Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers (1916)
Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.
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.
Socialism proposes no adequate substitute for the motive of enlightened selfishness that to-day is at the basis of all human labor and effort, enterprise and new activity.
We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.
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.
Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers (1916)
The truth is that in my present life I don’t remember that I ever was president.
Correspondence (1925)
I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade of each becomes more valuable to the other.
It is one of the deepest wounds that I have had as an American and a lover of the Constitution and a believer in progressive conservatism, that such a man as Brandeis could be put on the Court.
Rules of conduct which govern men in their relations to one another are being applied in an ever-increasing degree to nations. The battlefield as a place of settlement of disputes is gradually yielding to arbitral courts of justice.
In the public interest, therefore, it is better that we lose the services of the exceptions who are good Judges after they are seventy and avoid the presence on the Bench of men who are not able to keep up with the work, or to perform it satisfactorily.
There is nothing so despicable as a secret society that is based upon religious prejudice and that will attempt to defeat a man because of his religious beliefs. Such a society is like a cockroach — it thrives in the dark. So do those who combine for such an end.
Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution and the one which, united with that of personal liberty, has contributed more to the growth of civilization than any other institution established by the human race.
The intoxication of power rapidly sobers off in the knowledge of its restrictions and under the prompt reminder of an ever-present and not always considerate press, as well as the kindly suggestions that not infrequently come from Congress.
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.
I am a Unitarian. I believe in God. I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.
Letter to Yale University (1899)
Presidents may go to the seashore or to the mountains. Cabinet officers may go about the country explaining how fortunate the country is in having such an administration, but the machinery at Washington continues to operate under the army of faithful non-commissioned officers, and the great mass of governmental business is uninterrupted.
Our Chief Magistrate and His Powers (1916)
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