Herbert Hoover Quotes

The engineer performs many public functions from which he gets only philosophical satisfactions. Most people do not know it, but he is an economic and social force.

You convey too great a compliment when you say that I have earned the right to the presidential nomination. No man can establish such an obligation upon any part of the American people. My country owes me no debt. It gave me, as it gives every boy and girl, a chance. It gave me schooling, independence of action, opportunity for service and honor. In no other land could a boy from a country village, without inheritance or influential friends, look forward with unbounded hope. My whole life has taught me what America means. I am indebted to my country beyond any human power to repay.

Fishing is a constant reminder of the democracy of life, of humility, and of human frailty. The forces of nature discriminate for no man.

You cannot extend the mastery of government over the daily life of a people without somewhere making it master of people's souls and thoughts ... Every step in that direction poisons the very roots of liberalism. It poisons political equality, free speech, free press, and equality of opportunity. It is the road not to more liberty but to less liberty.

The Ritz Hotel has never yet provided game of such wondrous flavor as the bird plucked and half-cooked over the small boys' camp fire.

We have learned that social injustice is the destruction of justice itself.

Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.

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

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

When we are sick, we want an uncommon doctor; when we have a construction job to do, we want an uncommon engineer, and when we are at war, we want an uncommon general. It is only when we get into politics that we are satisfied with the common man.

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.

It is the youth who must inherit the tribulation, the sorrow ... that are the aftermath of war.

I suppose I could have called in the whole of the Army, but what was the use? All I had to do was call in Main Street itself.

Self-government does not and should not imply the use of political agencies alone. Progress is born of cooperation in the community - not from governmental restraints.

Somebody has inquired as to whether I will be going to the opening baseball game. I hope to have that pleasure.

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

Man is still by instinct a predatory animal given to devilish aggression. The discoveries of science have immensely increased productivity of material things. They have increased the standards of living and comfort. They have eliminated infinite drudgery. They have increased leisure. But that gives more time for devilment. The work of science has eliminated much disease and suffering. It has increased the length of life. That, together with increase in productivity, has resulted in vastly increased populations. Also it increased the number of people engaged in devilment.

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.

The association of Mount Ararat and Noah, the staunch Christians who were massacred periodically by the Mohammedan Turks, and the Sunday School collections over fifty years for alleviating their miseries-all cumulate to impress the name Armenia on the front of the American mind.

We are indebted to the Book of books (Bible) for our national ideals and institution. Their preservation rests in adhering to it's precepts.

The only trouble with capitalism is capitalists; they're too damned greedy.

Prosperity cannot be restored by raids upon the public Treasury.

Along with currency manipulation, the New Deal introduced to Americans the spectacle of Fascist dictation to business, labor, and agriculture.

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

The wreckage of representative government is strewn with broken promises.

The thing I enjoyed most were visits from children. They did not want public office.

The course of unbalanced budgets is the road to ruin

The whole inspiration of our civilization springs from the teachings of Christ and the lessons of the prophets. To read the Bible for these fundamentals is a necessity of American life.

In the great mass of our people there are plenty individuals of intelligence from among whom leadership can be recruited.

No greater nor more affectionate honor can be conferred on an American than to have a public school named after him.

[N]o country can squander itself to prosperity on the ruin of its taxpayers.

An ideal is an unselfish aspiration. Its purpose is the general welfare not only of this but of future generations. It is a thing of the spirit. It is a generous and humane desire that all men may share equally in a common good. Our ideals are the cement, which binds human society.

We have gold because we cannot trust governments

Engineering is a great profession.

I, with other Americans, have perhaps unduly resented the stream of criticism of American life ... more particularly have I resented the sneers at Main Street. For I have known that in the cottages that lay behind the street rested the strength of our national character.

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

We do not need to burn down the house to kill the rats

The outlook of the world today is for the greatest era of commercial expansion in history. The rest of the world will become better customers.

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.

A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus.

I protest that we fans are being emotionally starved and frustrated by long periods of perfect performance of these batteries. More over, when there are nothing but strikes and balls going on, you relapse into your worries over the Bank of England, or something else.

I shall tell my doctors baseball has more curative powers than all their medicine.

Competition is not only the basis of protection to the consumer, but is the incentive to progress.

The joys of fishing are not confined to the hours near the water.

Hunger is the mother of anarchy.

National character cannot be built by law. It is the sum of the moral fiber of its individuals.

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

Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt.

Lots of people committed crimes during the year who would not have done so if they had been fishing. The increase of crime is among those deprived of the regenerations that impregnate the mind and character of the fisherman.

If America is to be run by the people, it is the people who must think. And we do not need to put on sackcloth and ashes to think. Nor should our minds work like a sundial which records only sunshine. Our thinking must square against some lessons of history, some principles of government and morals, if we would preserve the rights and dignity of men to which this nation is dedicated.

Every generation has the right to build its own world out of the materials of the past, cemented by the hopes of the future.

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

Eat plenty, wisely, without waste.

Older men declare war. But it is the youth that must fight and die.

There is no employing class, no working class, no farming class. You may pigeonhole a man or woman as a farmer or a worker or a professional man or an employer or even a banker. But the son of the farmer will be a doctor or a worker or even a banker, and his daughter a teacher. The son of a worker will be an employer - or maybe president.

Every collectivist revolution rides in on a Trojan horse of "emergency". It was the tactic of Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini. In the collectivist sweep over a dozen minor countries of Europe, it was the cry of men striving to get on horseback. And "emergency" became the justification of the subsequent steps. This technique of creating emergency is the greatest achievement that demagoguery attains.

The opportunities of America opened out to me the public schools. They carried me to the professional training of an American university. I began by working with my own hands for my daily bread.

Reports to the Surgeon General ... represent the final word upon the efficient and devoted sense of responsibility of our people in this obligation to our fellow citizens. Overwhelmingly
they confirm the fact that the general mortality rate, infant mortality rate, epidemics, the disease rate-are less than in normal times. There is but one explanation. That is, that through
an aroused sense of public responsibility, those in destitution and their children are receiving actually more adequate care than even in normal times.

The New Deal repudiation of democracy has left the Republican Party alone the guardian of the Ark of the Covenant with its charter of freedom.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

The spirit of liberalism is to create free men; it is not the regimentation of men.

Even if security from the cradle to the grave could eliminate [all] the risks of life, it would [still] be a dead hand on the creative spirit of the American people.

Above all, we know that although Americans can be led to make great sacrifices, they do not like to be driven.

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

Whatever doubt there may be as to the quality or purpose of our free speech we certainly have ample volumes in production.

Progress will march if we hold an abiding faith in the intelligence, the initiative, the character, the courage, and the divine touch in the individual. We can safeguard these ends if we give to each individual that opportunity for which the spirit of America stands.

When the outcome of a meeting is to have another meeting, it has been a lousy meeting.

One civilization after another has been wrecked upon the attempt to secure sufficient leadership from a single group or class.

Those who have a true understanding of America know that we have no desire for territorial expansion, for economic or other domination of other peoples. Such purposes are repugnant to our ideals of human freedom.

I am no supporter of factory labor for children, but I have never joined with those who clamored against proper work of children on farms outside their school hours.

The Constitution is America's glue, Democracy is the Constitution's glue.

Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die.

There are things in the world that cannot be brought about. There are mistakes that cannot be repaired. But there is one thing sure
that loyalty and friendship are the most precious possessions a man can have.

The pause between the errors and trials of the day and the hopes of the night.

In the large sense the primary cause of the Great Depression was the war of 1914-1918. Without the war there would have been no depression of such dimensions. There might have been a normal cyclical recession; but, with the usual timing, even that readjustment probably would not have taken place at that particular period, nor would it have been a Great Depression.

Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they shall be fed!

No great question will ever be settled in dollars and cents. Great questions must be settled on moral grounds and the tests of what makes free men.

Bureaucracy is ever desirous of spreading its influence and its power. You cannot extend the mastery of the government over the daily working life of a people without at the same time
making it the master of the people's souls and thoughts.

Prosperity is just around the corner.

Any practice of business which would dominate the country by its own selfish interest is a destruction of equality of opportunity. Government in business, except in emergency, is also a destruction of equal opportunity and the incarnation of tyranny through bureaucracy.

The worst evil of disregard for some law is that it destroys respect for all law.

I want more runs in baseball itself. When you were raised on a sandlot, where the scores ran twenty-three to sixty-one, you yearn for something more than a five to two score. You know as well as I do that the excitement, temperature and decibels of any big game today rise instantly when there is someone on base. It reaches ecstasy when somebody makes a run.

America means far more than a continent bounded by two oceans. It is more than pride of military power, glory in war, or in victory. It means more than vast expanse of farms, of great factories or mines, magnificent cities, or millions of automobiles and radios.

When I decided to go into politics I weighed the costs. I would get criticism. But I went ahead. So when virulent criticism came I wasn't surprised. I was better able to handle it.

To go fishing is the chance to wash one's soul with pure air, with the rush of the brook, or with the shimmer of sun on blue water. It brings meekness and inspiration from the decency of nature, charity toward tackle-makers, patience toward fish, a mockery of profits and egos, a quieting of hate, a rejoicing that you do not have to decide a darned thing until next week. And it is discipline in the equality of men - for all men are equal before fish.

Children are the most wholesome part of the race, the sweetest, for they are the freshest from the hand of god.

Our strength lies in spiritual concepts. It lies in public sensitivities to evil. Our greatest danger is not from invading armies. Our dangers are that we may commit suicide from within by complaisance with evil, or by public tolerance of scandalous behavior.

Truly every generation discovers the world all new again and knows it can improve it.

Children add to the wonder of being alive.

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

Public health service should be as fully organized and as universally incorporated into our governmental system as is public education. The returns are a thousand fold in economic benefits, and infinitely more in reduction of suffering and promotion of human happiness.

Gentleman, you have come sixty days too late. The depression is over.

About the time we think we can make ends meet, somebody moves the ends.

My earliest realization of the stir of national life was the torch parade in the Garfield campaign. On that occasion, I was not only allowed out that night, but I saw the lamps being filled and lighted.

The priceless treasure of boyhood is his endless enthusiasm, his high store of idealism, his affections and his hopes. When we preserve these, we have made men. We have made citizens and we have made Americans.

The more complex the problems of the Nation become, the greater is the need for more and more advanced instruction.

Any lack of confidence in the economic future or the basic strength of business in the United States is foolish.

I can at once refute the statement that the people of the West object to conservation of oil resources. They know that there is a limit to oil supplies and that the time will come when they and the Nation will need this oil much more than it is needed now. There are no half measures in conservation of oil.

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

We must not be misled by the claim that the source of all wisdom is in the government.