Warren G. Harding Quotes

Being president isn't anything like reality TV.

My fellow citizens, the American Presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery.

[Martin] Van Buren says he considers it as a misfortune when any office to be filled by him becomes vacant, and thinks patronage rather a burden than a benefit.

The most difficult issues—the toughest decisions—are the ones that invariably end up on the President’s desk.

The presidency is not about easy choices.

Public confidence should govern political appointments.

No one man has any more intrinsic right to official station than another .... The duties of all public officers are ... so plain and simple that men of intelligence may readily qualify themselves for their performance.

The President is responsible to the public for the conduct of the person he has nominated and appointed.

I don't feel qualified to be President either, but I've got the job.

To call an individual from private life in order that he may preside over the interests of millions; to invest him with the various dignified functions, and the extensive patronage which appertain to a station so exalted; to secure as completely as possible, the free exercise of the people's rights; to discourage and prevent the artifices of party, and of individual ambition; and to accomplish all this by means of a fixed and practicable system which should neither be misunderstood, perverted nor resisted, was a task of no small difficulty.

If you're in Congress, you vote and give speeches. But governors have to make decisions every day, and presidents have to make decisions every day.

The duty of responsibility placed on any MP is one of the greatest honours that can be bestowed and I for one don't believe the Conservative Party would abuse that trust by selecting someone who did not have the goods to do the job, just for the sake of media coverage.

The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.

It's not easy to have the job of president. It's not easy to run for it. And it's not a job for the feint of heart.

Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you're the mayor. The bad news is, now you're the mayor.

It is always a delicate matter, when a friend or acquaintance becomes president.

The presidency has made every man who occupied it, no matter how small, bigger than he was; and no matter how big, not big enough for its demands.

Lots of people fantasize about what it would be like if they were president... Most think they'd be decent and wouldn't be corrupted at all, that they'd remain true to themselves.

The presidency has many problems, but boredom is the least of them.

I learned running the government for the Presidency, which I always thought was difficult, is even more difficult than I thought.

I have no desire to be president of the United States. Zero desire. I don't think that I would be electable. And there are far too many people that are far smarter than me to be president. I'd like to find one with some honor and integrity. I haven't seen them yet, but they'll show up.

Running for president is hard. But it's good preparation. Because being president is a lot harder.

One of the things about leadership is that you've got to show up. And if you want to be president of the United States you've got to make a case to the American people that Barack Obama needs to be dismissed from his position.

There would be nothing to get me to run for president. I don't even understand how anyone would want that job at all. Although I would be able to play golf which I don't seem to have time now.

I'm not prepared for holding office any more than I think Arnold is.