Obama is making a choice now that will lead to the deaths of many thousands of civilians in Afghanistan by American hands. By ordinary standards of presidents, he is a decent man. But those standards aren't good enough. He's in a position either to kill or not to kill, and he's made the decision to kill.
Daniel Ellsberg

One of the embarrassing problems for the early nineteenth-century champions of the Christian faith was that not one of the first six Presidents of the United States was an orthodox Christian.
Mortimer Adler

One out of forty American men wears women's clothing. We've had more than forty presidents. One of these guys has been dancing around the Oval Office in a prom dress.
Allison Janney

Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial "we."
Mark Twain

Our chief justices have probably had more profound and lasting influence on their times and on the direction of the nation than most presidents.
Richard M. Nixon

Power is poison. Its effect on Presidents had always been tragic.
Henry B. Adams

Presidents are elected not by direct popular vote but by 538 members of the Electoral College.
Thomas E. Mann

Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.
William Howard Taft

Presidents do not go into war lightly. It's a tremendous responsibility in making decisions, and I know Bush must deeply believe this is the only course.
Julie Nixon Eisenhower

Presidents quickly realize that while a single act might destroy the world they live in, no one single decision can make life suddenly better or can turn history around for the good.
Lyndon B. Johnson

Presidents with strong nerves are decisive. They don't balk at unpopular decisions. They are willing to make people angry. Bush had strong nerves. Clinton, who passed up a chance to eliminate Osama bin Laden, did not. Obama is a people pleaser, a trait not normally associated with nerves of steel.
Fred Barnes

Since the end of the nineteenth century, if not earlier, presidents have misled the public about their motives and their intentions in going to war.
Robert Higgs

Some people put down all presidents. If you say anything good about any of them, they think you're supporting everything they do.
Neil Young

Success in war underpins the claims to greatness of many presidents.
R. W. Apple, Jr.

Sure, it is apparent that presidents are looking at polls, but they are also stepping up on issues. President Clinton stepped up on tobacco. He shaped the polls on the tobacco issue.
Donna Shalala

The presidents I served under don't have anything to do with my politics.
William Odom

The presidents of colleges have to have some courage to step forward. You can't limit alcohol in college sports, you have to get rid of it.
Dean Smith

The principles and policy of these Presidents were marked by the most enlarged and comprehensive statesmanship, promoting the highest interests of the Republic.
Robert Toombs

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

US presidents can make all the commitments and declarations they want until they are blue in the face, in the Muslim world they will always be perceived as partisan.
Daniel Barenboim