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James K. Polk Quotes

Total quotes: 19
“The passion for office among members of Congress is very great, if not absolutely disreputable, and greatly embarrasses the operations of the government. They create offices by their own votes and then seek to fill them themselves.”
— James K. Polk, Diary entry
Tagged: Passion, Embarrassment, Government, Operation, voting, Hypocrisy
“The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government.”
— James K. Polk, Inaugural Address
Tagged: Government, Law, Military, World, Ambition
“Thank God, under our Constitution there was no connection between church and state.”
— James K. Polk, Diary entry
Tagged: God, Constitution, Connection, Church, state, separation
“There is more selfishness and less principle among members of Congress, as well as others, than I had any conception [of], before I became President of the U.S.”
— James K. Polk, Diary entry
Tagged: selfishness, Principle, Congress, Government, President
“Well may the boldest fear and the wisest tremble when incurring responsibilities on which may depend our country's peace and prosperity, and in some degree the hopes and happiness of the whole human family.”
— James K. Polk, Inaugural Address
Tagged: Fear, Tremble, Responsibilities, Peace, prosperity, Happiness
“It becomes us, in humility, to make our devout acknowledgments to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, for the inestimable civil and religious blessings with which we are favored.”
— James K. Polk, First annual message to Congress
Tagged: Blessings, Religous Belief, Humility, Supreme Ruler
“Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression.”
— James K. Polk
Tagged: Minorities, Constitution, Oppression
“If a man . . . would shake and not be shaken, grip and not be gripped, taking care always to squeeze the hand of his adversary as hard as it squeezed him, then he suffered no inconvenience from it.”
— James K. Polk
Tagged: Man, inconvenience
“I am heartily rejoiced that my term is so near its close. I will soon cease to be a servant and will become a sovereign.”
— James K. Polk, Diary entry
Tagged: Term, Presidency, End, Servant, Sovereignty
“Foreign powers do not seem to appreciate the true character of our Government.”
— James K. Polk, Inaugural Address
Tagged: Foreign Power, Government, Law, character
“With me it is emphatically true that the presidency is "no bed of roses."”
— James K. Polk
Tagged: Presidency, Hardship, Work, Difficulty
“I cannot, whilst President of the United States, descend to enter into a newspaper controversy.”
— James K. Polk
Tagged: Controversy, Presidency, United States, newspaper
“Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.”
— James K. Polk
Tagged: Peace, Contentment, country, World
“The world has nothing to fear from military ambition in our Government. While the Chief Magistrate and the popular branch of Congress are elected for short terms by the suffrages of those millions who must in their own persons bear all the burdens and miseries of war, our Government can not be otherwise than pacific.”
— James K. Polk
Tagged: Fear, Government, Congress, War
“Although in our country the Chief Magistrate must almost of necessity be chosen by a party and stand pledged to its principles and measures, yet in his official action he should not be the President of a part only, but of the whole people of the United States.”
— James K. Polk, Inaugural Address
Tagged: Pledge, Principles, actions, Presidency
“I love you Sarah. For all eternity, I love you.”
— James K. Polk, What Were The Dead Presidents' Last Words?
Tagged: Beautiful Last Words, Famous, Death, Last Words, Love, Eternity
“No president who performs his duties faithfully and conscientiously can have any leisure. If he entrusts the details and smaller matters to subordinates constant errors will occur. I prefer to supervise the whole operations of the government myself rather than entrust the public business to subordinates, and this makes my duties very great.”
— James K. Polk, Diary entry
Tagged: President, Duties, Leisure, Errors
“Under the benignant providence of Almighty God the representatives of the States and of the people are again brought together to deliberate for the public good. The gratitude of the nation to the sovereign arbiter of all human events should be commensurate with the boundless blessings which we enjoy.
Peace, plenty, and contentment reign throughout our borders, and our beloved country presents a sublime moral spectacle to the world.”
— James K. Polk, Fourth Annual Message to Congress
Tagged: Divine Providence, Public Good, Gratitude, nation, Blessings
“By the theory of our Government majorities rule, but this right is not an arbitrary or unlimited one. It is a right to be exercised in subordination to the Constitution and in conformity to it. One great object of the Constitution was to restrain majorities from oppressing minorities or encroaching upon their just rights. Minorities have a right to appeal to the Constitution as a shield against such oppression.”
— James K. Polk
Tagged: rule, Government, rights, Minorities, Constitution, Oppression
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