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We can't have a decent government unless those in power exercise self restraint.

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
Exercise
Unless
Power
Government
Self
Restraint
Decent

More quotes by William Howard Taft

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I would like to have an ample fund to spread the light of Republicanism, but I am willing to undergo the disadvantage to make certain that in the future we shall reduce the power of money in politics for unworthy purposes.
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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I think his greatest fault is his failure to accord credit to anyone for what he may have done. This is a great weakness in any man.
William Howard Taft
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The truth is that in my present life I don't remember that I ever was president.
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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Politics make me sick
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 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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I do not think that there is any doubt about where I stand in respect to boycotts. If there is, I will just state what I think about them. They are illegal and ought to be suppressed. I would never countenance that which recognizes their legality.
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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If this humor be the safety of our race, then it is due largely to the infusion into the American people of the Irish brain.
William Howard Taft
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I don't know the man I admire more than [Charles Evans] Hughes. If ever I have the chance I shall offer him the Chief Justiceship.
William Howard Taft
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The President cannot make clouds to rain and cannot make the corn to grow. He cannot make business good, although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way
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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The Society or Fraternity of Freemasons is more in the nature of a system of Philosophy or of moral and social virtues taught by symbols, allegories, and lectures based upon fundamental truths, the observance of which tends to promote stability of character, conservatism, morality and good citizenship.
William Howard Taft
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We live in a stage of politics, where legislators seem to regard the passage of laws as much more important than the results of their enforcement.
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
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Rules of conduct which govern men in their relations to one another are being applied in an ever-increasing degree to nations. The battlefield as a place of settlement of disputes is gradually yielding to arbitral courts of justice.
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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I don't know whither we are drifting, but I do know where every real thinking patriot will stand in the end, and that's by the Constitution.
William Howard Taft