Jimmy Carter

"I think there ought to be a strict separation or wall built between our religious faith and our practice of political authority in office. I don't think the President of the United States should extoll Christianity if he happens to be a Christian at the expense of Judaism, Islam or other faiths."

-Jimmy Carter

"You just have to have a simple faith."

-Jimmy Carter

"In religious and in secular affairs, the more fervent beliefs attract followers. If you are a moderate in any respect - if you're a moderate on abortion, if you're a moderate on gun control, or if you're a moderate in your religious faith - it doesn't evolve into a crusade where you're either right or wrong, good or bad, with us or against us."

-Jimmy Carter

"If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement."

-Jimmy Carter

fearView Quote

"It's not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail."

-Jimmy Carter

fearView Quote

"We can't equate democracy with Christianity because the largest democracy on earth is India, which is primarily Hindu. The third largest democracy is Indonesia, which is Islamic. Democracy and freedom are not dependent on Christian beliefs."

-Jimmy Carter

freedomView Quote

"The best way to enhance freedom in other lands is to demonstrate here that our democratic system is worthy of emulation."

-Jimmy Carter

freedomView Quote

"I've used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I've still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth."

-Jimmy Carter

freedomView Quote

"Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future."

-Jimmy Carter

futureView Quote

"I am confident that when the facts and policies have been examined, when the record of performances have been reviewed, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will once again be elected to lead our beloved country to a better future."

-Jimmy Carter

futureView Quote

"I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me."

-Jimmy Carter

godView Quote

"I can't really criticize the Tea Party people, because I came into the White House pretty much on the same basis that they have become popular. That is dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Washington and disillusionment and disencouragement about the government."

-Jimmy Carter

governmentView Quote

"Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom."

-Jimmy Carter

governmentView Quote

"It's very difficult for the American people to believe that our government, one of the richest on Earth, is also one of the stingiest on Earth."

-Jimmy Carter

governmentView Quote

"In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: 'We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.'"

-Jimmy Carter

graduationView Quote

"For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival, liberty is human rights, the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants."

-Jimmy Carter

happinessView Quote

"The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny."

-Jimmy Carter

healthView Quote

"The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy's deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed in 1978 or '79."

-Jimmy Carter

healthView Quote

"I think all Americans believe in human rights. And health is an often overlooked aspect of basic human rights. And it's one that's easily corrected. The reason I say that is that many of the diseases that we treat around the world, I knew when I was a child. My mother was a registered nurse. And they no longer exist in our country."

-Jimmy Carter

healthView Quote

"The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny."

-Jimmy Carter

historyView Quote

"The Carter Center has the only existing international taskforce on disease eradication. Which means a total elimination of a disease on the face of the Earth. In the history of the world, there's only been one disease eradicated: smallpox. The second disease, I think, is gonna be guinea worm."

-Jimmy Carter

historyView Quote

"I don't claim to be knowledgeable about theology. Most of my knowledge comes out of my experience and the lessons in the Bible. Every Sunday I'm home I teach 45 minutes and we boiled them down to one page for the new book, 'Through the Year with Jimmy Carter.'"

-Jimmy Carter

homeView Quote

"I don't claim to be knowledgeable about theology. Most of my knowledge comes out of my experience and the lessons in the Bible. Every Sunday I'm home I teach 45 minutes and we boiled them down to one page for the new book, 'Through the Year with Jimmy Carter.'"

-Jimmy Carter

knowledgeView Quote

"When we go to the Bible we should keep in mind that the basic principles of the Bible are taught by God, but written down by human beings deprived of modern day knowledge. So there is some fallibility in the writings of the Bible. But the basic principles are applicable to my life and I don't find any conflict among them."

-Jimmy Carter

knowledgeView Quote

"Ever since Israel has been a nation the United States has provided the leadership. Every president down to the ages has done this in a fairly balanced way, including George Bush senior, Gerald Ford, and others including myself and Bill Clinton."

-Jimmy Carter

leadershipView Quote

"Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future."

-Jimmy Carter

menView Quote

"We must make it clear that a platform of 'I hate gay men and women' is not a way to become president of the United States."

-Jimmy Carter

menView Quote

"I believe there is complete equality between men and women. And I believe those passages in the New Testament, not by Jesus, but by Paul, that say women should not adorn themselves, they should always wear hats or color their hair in church - things like that - I think they are signs of the times and should not apply to modern-day life."

-Jimmy Carter

menView Quote

"I've just finished my 20th book this past year and I'm working on my 21st book about the Middle East right now that I'll finish this year. And I get up early in the morning and when I get tired of the computer and tired of doing research, I walk 20 steps out to my woodshop and I either build furniture or paint paintings. I'm an artist too."

-Jimmy Carter

morningView Quote

"Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries."

-Jimmy Carter

musicView Quote

"Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries."

-Jimmy Carter

natureView Quote

"It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever."

-Jimmy Carter

natureView Quote

"Unfortunately, after Sept. 11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous."

-Jimmy Carter

patriotismView Quote

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."

-Jimmy Carter

"We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."

-Jimmy Carter

"It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature's gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever."

-Jimmy Carter

"We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war."

-Jimmy Carter

"On balance, my life has been a constant stream of blessings rather than disappointments and failures and tragedies. I wish I had been re-elected. I think I could have kept our country at peace. I think I could have consolidated what we achieved at Camp David with a treaty between Israel and the Palestinians."

-Jimmy Carter

"Because I know about the Holy Land, I've taught lessons about the Holy Land all my life, and - but you can't bring peace to Israel without giving the Palestinian also peace. And Lebanon and Jordan and Syria as well."

-Jimmy Carter

"My constant prayer, my number one foreign goal, is to bring peace to Israel. And in the process to Israel's neighbours."

-Jimmy Carter

"When I was elected President nobody asked me to negotiate between Israel and Egypt. It was not even a question raised in my campaign. But I felt that one of the reasons that I was elected President was to try to bring peace to the Holy Land."

-Jimmy Carter

"When I was in the White House, I was confronted with the challenge of the Cold War. Both the Soviet Union and I had 30,000 nuclear weapons that could destroy the entire earth and I had to maintain the peace."

-Jimmy Carter

"I've used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I've still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth."

-Jimmy Carter

"Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future."

-Jimmy Carter

politicsView Quote

"In religious and in secular affairs, the more fervent beliefs attract followers. If you are a moderate in any respect - if you're a moderate on abortion, if you're a moderate on gun control, or if you're a moderate in your religious faith - it doesn't evolve into a crusade where you're either right or wrong, good or bad, with us or against us."

-Jimmy Carter

respectView Quote

"In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: 'We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.'"

-Jimmy Carter

strengthView Quote

"In this outward and physical ceremony we attest once again to the inner and spiritual strength of our Nation. As my high school teacher, Miss Julia Coleman, used to say: 'We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.'"

-Jimmy Carter

teacherView Quote

"Globalization, as defined by rich people like us, is a very nice thing... you are talking about the Internet, you are talking about cell phones, you are talking about computers. This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people of the world."

-Jimmy Carter

technologyView Quote

"I don't want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He's a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach."

-Jimmy Carter

truthView Quote

"War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children."

-Jimmy Carter

"We cannot be both the world's leading champion of peace and the world's leading supplier of the weapons of war."

-Jimmy Carter

"There's no doubt that usually a president's public image is enhanced by going to war. That never did appeal to me."

-Jimmy Carter

"I had very good support from Democrats and Republicans all throughout my administration. I had a very high batting average. We added more jobs per year in my four years than any other president since the Second World War."

-Jimmy Carter

"When I was in the White House, I was confronted with the challenge of the Cold War. Both the Soviet Union and I had 30,000 nuclear weapons that could destroy the entire earth and I had to maintain the peace."

-Jimmy Carter