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We are all imperfect. We can not expect perfect government.

William Howard Taft

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William Howard Taft
Age: 72 †
Born: 1857
Born: September 15
Died: 1930
Died: March 8
27Th U.S. President
Judge
Lawyer
Pedagogue
Politician
Prosecutor
Statesperson
University Teacher
Cincinnati
Ohio
William Taft
William H. Taft
President Taft
W. H. Taft
W. Taft
Expect
Perfect
Government
Imperfect

More quotes by William Howard Taft

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No, the only things which do not bother me are the elements. I can overcome them without a fight. All one has to do to get the best of the elements is to stand pat and one will win.
William Howard Taft
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What I am anxious to do is to secure my legislation.... What I want to do is to get through that, and if I can point to a record of usefulness of that kind, I am entirely willing to quit office.
William Howard Taft
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I know this, and I know it from actual experience in the Orient, that the progress of modern Christian civilization has largely depended on the earnest hard work of the Christian missions of every denomination.
William Howard Taft
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When the history of this period is written, [William Jennings] Bryan will stand out as one of the most remarkable men of his generation and one of the biggest political men of our country.
William Howard Taft
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My impression about the Panama Canal is that the great revolution it is going to introduce in the trade of the world is in the trade between the east and the west coast of the United States.
William Howard Taft
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The laboring man and the trade-unionist, if I understand him, asks only equality before the law. Class legislation and unequal privilege, though expressly in his favor, will in the end work no benefit to him or to society.
William Howard Taft
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Anti-Semitism is a noxious weed that should be cut out. It has no place in America.
William Howard Taft
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I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.
William Howard Taft
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Presidents come and go, but the Supreme Court goes on forever.
William Howard Taft
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There is not a subject in which I take a deeper interest than I do in the development of Alaska, and I propose, if Congress will follow by recommendations, to do something in that territory that will make it move on.
William Howard Taft
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I am president now, and tired of being kicked around.
William Howard Taft
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I sincerely hope that the incoming Congress will be alive, as it should be, to the importance of our foreign trade and of encouraging it in every way feasible. The possibility of increasing this trade in the Orient, in the Philippines, and in South America is known to everyone who has given the matter attention.
William Howard Taft
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The President can exercise no power which cannot be fairly and reasonably traced to some specific grant of power in the Federal Constitution or in an act of Congress passed in pursuance thereof. There is no undefined residuum of power which he can exercise because it seems to him to be in the public interest.
William Howard Taft
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The cheerful loser is a sort of winner.
William Howard Taft
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The prosperity of Masonry as a means of strengthening our religion and propagating true brotherly love, is one of the dearest wishes of my heart, which, I trust, will be gratified by the help of the Grand Architect of the Universe.
William Howard Taft
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If they will play fair I will play fair, but if they won't then I reserve all my rights to do anything I find myself able to do.
William Howard Taft
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The policy of dollar diplomacy is one that appeals alike to idealistic humanitarian sentiments, to dictates of sound policy, and strategy, and to legitimate commercial aims.
William Howard Taft
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The true Mason's level of discernment increases with every use of the working tools, because the true Mason is ever working on him/her self.
William Howard Taft
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We have passed the time of ... the laisser-faire [sic] school which believes that the government ought to do nothing but run a police force.
William Howard Taft
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Unless education promotes character making, unless it helps men to be more moral, more just to their fellows, more law abiding, more discriminatingly patriotic and public spirited, it is not worth the trouble taken to furnish it.
William Howard Taft