Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.
Jimmy Carter

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.
Jimmy Carter

At the Carter Center we work with victims of oppression, and we give support to human rights heroes.
Jimmy Carter

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

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

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

Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.
Jimmy Carter

I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it's so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.
Jimmy Carter

I have often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming.
Jimmy Carter

I look forward to these confrontations with the press to kind of balance up the nice and pleasant things that come to me as president.
Jimmy Carter


I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.
Jimmy Carter

I think what's going on in Guantanamo Bay and other places is a disgrace to the U.S.A. I wouldn't say it's the cause of terrorism, but it has given impetus and excuses to potential terrorists to lash out at our country and justify their despicable acts.
Jimmy Carter

I thought then, and I think now, that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and unjust. And I think the premises on which it was launched were false.
Jimmy Carter

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

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

If you're totally illiterate and living on one dollar a day, the benefits of globalization never come to you.
Jimmy Carter

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

It is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.
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

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