Chester A. Arthur Quotes

Chester A. Arthur presents candid, witty commentary on politics and honor that feels like a lively chat over coffee.

23 quotes

1. There are very many characteristics which go into making a model civil servant. Prominent among them are probity, industry, good sense, good habits, good temper, patience, order, courtesy, tact, self-reliance, many deference to superior officers, and many consideration for inferiors.

2. Indiana was really, I suppose, a Democratic State. It has always been put down in the book as a state that might be carried by a close and careful and perfect organization and a great deal of- [from audience: 'soap,' in reference to purchased votes, the word being followed by laughter]. I see reporters here, and therefore I will simply say that everybody showed a great deal of interest in the occasion, and distributed tracts and political documents all through the country.

3. The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.

4. I trust the time is nigh when, with the universal assent of civilized people, all international differences shall be determined without resort to arms by the benignant processes of civilization.

5. Experience has shown that the trade of the East is the key to national wealth and influence.

6. Men may die, but the fabric of our free institutions remains unshaken.

7. What a pleasant lot of fellows they are. What a pity they have so little sense about politics. If they lived North the last one of them would be Republicans.

8. The office of the Vice-President is a greater honor than I ever dreamed of attaining.

9. Honors to me now are not what they once were.

10. Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damn business.

11. I don't think we had better go into the minute secrets of the campaign, so far as I know them, because I see the reporters are present, who are taking it all down.

12. Since I came here I have learned that Chester A. Arthur is one man and the President of the United States is another.

13. Men may die, but the fabrics of free institutions remains unshaken.

14. As is natural with contiguous states having like institutions and like aims of advancement and development, the friendship of the United States and Mexico has been constantly maintained.

15. Where you stand depends where you sit.

16. Be fit for more than the thing you are now doing. Let everyone know that you have a reserve in yourself; that you have more power than you are now using. If you are not too large for the place you occupy, you are too small for it.

17. It is provided by the Constitution that the President shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the Union and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

18. No higher proof exists of the strength of popular government than, though the chosen of the people be struck down, his constitutional successor is peacefully installed without shock or strain.

19. If it were not for the reporters, I would tell you the truth.

20. Well, there doesn't seem anything else for an ex-President to do but to go into the country and raise big pumpkins.

21. I may be president of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damned business.

22. The countries of the American continent and the adjacent islands are for the United States the natural marts of supply and demand.

23. The health of the people is of supreme importance. All measures looking to their protection against the spread of contagious diseases and to the increase of our sanitary knowledge for such purposes deserve attention of Congress.