Henry L. Stimson Quotes

To be elected to public office requires no qualifications.

No one you'd really like to see in public office has the bad taste to run.

In their day, no man worthy of the presidency would ever stoop to campaigning for it. George Washington was asked to serve. Decades later, his successors were also expected to sit by the phone.

I love being the mayor. I want to be the mayor forever.

I've often been asked to run for office. I have no desire to do that, I would not want my time with the family or the company restricted because of the demands of an elected position.

I am not a politician and I have no intention of being one.

You would make the best governor but not the best candidate.

Public service is a noble career. You can’t do it unless you get out there and run…. You can make a difference if you are elected.

Public business … must always be done by somebody…. If wise men decline it, others will not; if honest men refuse it, others will not.

I’ve been asked to run for public office three times now, and each time I’ve managed to escape with my virtue intact. I said, no.

You might be considering elected office because you are angry with those in power. Indignation can be a motivator to run but not to govern. If you win you'll need more than anger to govern.

I have no desire to run for public office.

If you don't like public service, don't run for office.

I'm not one of the people who have to be in public office.

I was embarrassed when I went and told my parents that I was thinking about running for public office.

School boards can be a steppingstone to higher forms of political leadership.

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

I would like to run for the mayor of the city of Chicago. That has always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives.

People who assume I want to run for elected office may be dealing from a bad assumption.

I would be lying if I told you that I hadn't had aspirations to run for a statewide office.

I've got the greatest job in the world. There's no other job in government where cause and effect is so tightly coupled where you can make a difference every day in so many different ways and in so many different people's lives. It's a great challenge.

I ain't running for office. I ain't running for nothing.

I will not ever run for political office. I can assure you.

I never intended to be a politician or office-seeker.

A public official must feel that he is a servant of the people. This is true of all public officials but perhaps in a special sense true of the Secretary of State, for our party lines stop at the water’s edge.