Quotes by Herbert Hoover

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

All men are equal before fish.

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

Children are our most valuable natural resource.

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

Economic depression cannot be cured by legislative action or executive pronouncement. Economic wounds must be healed by the action of the cells of the economic body - the producers and consumers themselves.

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

Freedom is the open window through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit and human dignity.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

I'm the only person of distinction who has ever had a depression named for him.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

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

It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.

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

Many years ago, I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The president differs from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

My country owes me nothing. 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.

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

No public man can be just a little crooked.

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

Once upon a time my political opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a worldwide depression all by myself.

Peace is not made at the council table or by treaties, but in the hearts of men.

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

The slogan of progress is changing from the full dinner pail to the full garage.

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

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

We have not yet reached the goal but.. we shall soon, with the help of God, be in sight of the day when poverty shall be banished from this nation.

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

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.

You will expect me to discuss the late election. Well, as nearly as I can learn, we did not have enough votes on our side.

Thus the scene of the tragedy of Liberty world over must be suffering and discontent among the people. The drama moves swiftly in a torrent of words in which real purposes are disguised in portrayals of Utopia; idealism without realism; slogans, phrases and statements destructive to confidence in existing institutions; demands for violent action against slowly curable ills; unfair representation that sporadic wickedness is the system itself; searing prejudice against the former order; dismay and panic in the economic organization which feeds on its own despair. Emotions rise above reason. The man on horseback, ascending triumphantly to office on the steps of constitutional process, demands and threatens the parliament into the delegation of its sacred power. Then follows consolidation of authority through powerful propaganda in the pay of the state to transform the mentality of the people. Resentment of criticism, denunciation of all opposition, moral terrorization, all follow in sequence. The last scene is the suppression of freedom. Liberty dies of the water from her own well- free speech- poisoned by untruth. In the Epilogue the dreams of those who saw Utopia are shattered and the people find they are marching backward toward the Middle Ages- as regimented men.

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

America - a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.

Engineering is a great profession. There is the satisfaction of watching a figment of the imagination emerge through the aid of science to a plan on paper. Then it moves to realisation in stone or metal or energy. Then it brings homes to men or women. Then it elevates the standard of living and adds to the comforts of life. This is the engineer's high privilege.

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

The use of the atomic bomb, with its indiscriminate killing of women and children, revolts my soul.

New discoveries in science will continue to create a thousand new frontiers for those who still would adventure.

Let me remind you that credit is the lifeblood of business, the lifeblood of prices and jobs.

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

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