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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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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
School
Government
Faire
Nothing
Believes
Believe
Passed
Time
Police
Ought
Force
Running

More quotes by William Howard Taft

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He [Roosevelt] has made some speeches that indicate that he is going quite beyond anything that he advocated when he was in the White House, and has proposed a program which is absolutely impossible to carry out except by a revision of the Constitution.
William Howard Taft
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We are imperfect. We cannot expect perfect government.
William Howard Taft
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Presidents may go to the seashore or to the mountains. Cabinet officers may go about the country explaining how fortunate the country is in having such an administration, but the machinery at Washington continues to operate under the army of faithful non-commissioned officers, and the great mass of governmental business is uninterrupted.
William Howard Taft
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The secret of Masonry, like the secret of life, can be known only by those who seek it, serve it, live it. It cannot be uttered it can only be felt and acted. It is, in fact, an open secret, and each man knows it according to his quest and capacity. Like all things worth knowing, no one can know it for another and no man can know it alone.
William Howard Taft
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In the public interest, therefore, it is better that we lose the services of the exceptions who are good Judges after they are seventy and avoid the presence on the Bench of men who are not able to keep up with the work, or to perform it satisfactorily.
William Howard Taft
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We are all dependent upon the investment of capital.
William Howard Taft
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Next to the right of liberty, the right of property is the most important individual right guaranteed by the Constitution . .
William Howard Taft
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Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority.
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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That all may be so, but when I begin to exercise that power I am not conscious of the power, but only of the limitations imposed on me.
William Howard Taft
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I am afraid I am a constant disappointment to my party. The fact of the matter is, the longer I am President the less of a party man I seem to become.
William Howard Taft
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I know how irritating it is to have somebody else lay down rules for your moral uplift, but you've got to stand a great deal in order to make progress.
William Howard Taft
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I am glad to be going. This is the lonesomest pace in the world?
William Howard Taft
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The true Mason is the Tiler of the Temple of the Heart.
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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I am in favor of helping the prosperity of all countries because, when we are all prosperous, the trade with each becomes more valuable to the other.
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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The Government is able to afford a suitable army and a suitable navy. It may maintain them without the slightest danger to the Republic or the cause of free institutions, and fear of additional taxation ought not to change a proper policy in this regard.
William Howard Taft
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The game of baseball is a clean, straight game.
William Howard Taft
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Action for which I become responsible, or for which my administration becomes responsible, shall be within the law.
William Howard Taft