Nat Hentoff Quotes

I believe the record I was allowed to help establish by the side of the president was important.

Once a president gets to the White House, the only audience that is left that really matters is history.

Every president, as he nears the end of his final term in office, thinks about his place in history.

Richard M. Nixon ... has a deeper concern for his place in history than for the people he governs. And history will not fail to note that fact.

Sometimes a President seems greater after he has left office than while he was in it.

I've done 44 portraits of Obama because he's the 44th president.

In the course of a presidency, a U.S. president says millions of words in public. You never know which of them end up cementing a certain impression.

I consider Monroe a pretty minor president. In spite of the Monroe Doctrine. That's the only important thing he ever did more or less on his own, when you really get down to it.

I think in many ways president Trump views himself as someone who has the ability to overcome every obstacle and to do something that no other president has been able to do. And I think that's the way he views himself, as it relates to his legacy and how history will view him.

President Obama has done more damage to America than any American has since 1776

Is [Obama] the worst president ever? He's certainly the most destructive president we've had in terms of tearing apart this country and all of the freedoms that we have fought for.

Bill Klinton was the ultimate rock star as president. I don't think as a result of his presidency we will ever have a rock star as president again. In the same way that we will never get involved in another Vietnam.

I think that we put too much weight on who the president is.

We have to judge presidents not only by the long-term consequences of their actions but also by how they make citizens in their own day feel. One reason that Nixon never succeeded in his comeback campaign is that he had such a negative impact on public trust at the time of his presidency.

I admire and respect Bill Clinton. I think he was a great president.

Stephen Harper is probably the most dangerous human being ever elevated to power in Canada.

The function of president in France is one of significant symbolic value; it can't be compared with that of prime minister or cabinet member. Everything you do, everything you say - but also what you don't say - suddenly has meaning. That might sound quite formidable or even stressful, but I think it is a product of the history of this role.

I have a lot of respect for President Obama. I consider him a friend. I disagree with him on issues like the extension of tax breaks that Bush initiated. But I think history will judge a President Obama a lot better than many other contemporaries, given the fact that he came into office at a time when this country was in terrible, terrible shape.

I can't think of a more mediocre human talent than George Bush. He obviously is a product of family advantage, and he's the worst American President of all time.

I don't want somebody as attorney general who thinks he has to rubberstamp whatever the president says.

Barack Obama will go down alongside George W. Bush in that realm as middling presidents because both made too many mistakes to be categorized as an effective, good president.

I think that the world will continue trying to grapple with the climate problem, no matter who is U.S. president. But I think that, depending on who that president is, it can have a significant influence on the trajectory.

My hope is that's something [Donald Trump] is thinking about, because not only is the president of the United States somebody that the entire country looks to for direction but sets the agenda internationally in a lot of ways.

I love President Bush. I think it's great we have a president who always looks like he's looking directly into the sun.

When the President starts talking about something, it makes a difference.