If I were to make public these tapes, containing blunt and candid remarks on many different subjects, the confidentiality of the office of the president would always be suspect.

My own view is that taping of conversations for historical purposes was a bad decision on the part of all the presidents. I don't think Kennedy should have done it. I don't think Johnson should have done it, and I don't think we should have done it.

Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don't care what they say, they like it.

It I talked about Watergate, I was described as struggling to free myself from the morass. If I did not talk about Watergate, I was accused of being out of touch with reality.

Watergate had become the center of the media's universe, and during the remaining year of my presidency the media tried to force everything else to revolve around it.

My concern today is not with the length of a person's hair but with his conduct.

I've analyzed the best I can... and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

I can take it. The tougher it gets, the cooler I get.

The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

Only if you have been in the deepest valley, can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain.

A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.

Never let your head hang down. Never give up and sit down and grieve. Find another way. And don't pray when it rains if you don't pray when the sun shines.

People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. I earned everything I've got.

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

Defeat doesn't finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he's defeated. He's finished when he quits.

If you take no risks, you will suffer no defeats. But if you take no risks, you win no victories.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

People react to fear, not love; they don't teach that in Sunday School, but it's true.

The Cold War isn't thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn't sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.

Those who hate you don't win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.

Don't get the impression that you arouse my anger. You see, one can only be angry with those he respects.

You must never be satisfied with losing. You must get angry, terribly angry, about losing. But the mark of the good loser is that he takes his anger out on himself and not his victorious opponents or on his teammates.

Always remember that others may hate you but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.

If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.

I gave 'em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I'd have done the same thing.

Let us move from the era of confrontation to the era of negotiation.

We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another - until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.

If an individual wants to be a leader and isn't controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam War. It was misreported then, and it is misremembered now.

In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.

The press is the enemy.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal.

I don't know anything that builds the will to win better than competitive sports.

You must pursue this investigation of Watergate even if it leads to the president. I'm innocent. You've got to believe I'm innocent. If you don't, take my job.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business.

Any change is resisted because bureaucrats have a vested interest in the chaos in which they exist.

Well, I screwed it up real good, didn't I?

Solutions are not the answer.

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

I see the face of a child. He lives in a great city. He is black. Or he is white. He is Mexican, Italian, Polish. None of that matters. What matters, he's an American child.

Life isn't meant to be easy. It's hard to take being on the top - or on the bottom. I guess I'm something of a fatalist. You have to have a sense of history, I think, to survive some of these things... Life is one crisis after another.

Never say no when a client asks for something, even if it is the moon. You can always try, and anyhow there is plenty of time afterwards to explain that it was not possible.

There will be no whitewash in the White House.

I can see clearly now... that I was wrong in not acting more decisively and more forthrightly in dealing with Watergate.

The memory of that scene for me is like a frame of film forever frozen at that moment: the red carpet, the green lawn, the white house, the leaden sky. The new president and his first lady.