Presidential Reputation Quotes

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

Our Presidents have ranged from the disgraceful to the heroic, but almost none of them were actually normal human beings.

The deficit is potentially Ronald Reagan’s Vietnam.

You're on the elevator of public opinion when you're in the presidency.

Nixon had some large achievements in foreign affairs. They will be remembered. But a president probably gets remembered for one thing, and Watergate will head the Nixon list, I suspect.

Trump continues to diminish the office of the Presidency.

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

I look forward to these confrontations with the press to kind of balance up the nice and pleasant things that come to me as president.

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

I think it has sullied his presidency. As brilliant a politician as Bill Clinton is, as magnetic a personality as he can be, there is one little screw loose somewhere.

Presidents Truman and Nixon left office under dark clouds of scandal and with abysmal levels of support, but with the passage of time, both have been reassessed far more positively.

Every President hates the Press.

What will the soldiers and sailors, what will the common people say to George Washington, President of the United States? They will despise him to all eternity.

Whatever its cause, the media's general Hillary Clinton loathing is a foundational truth that would define her as president.

His Presidency gave his post-Presidency credibility.

As someone who has more than a passing acquaintance with most of the 20th century presidents, I have often thought that their accomplishments have little staying power in shaping popular views of their leadership.

Look, when you're the president, there's all kinds of things said about us. I mean, it's just the nature of the job.

The men who have had great vision in the White House are those who are most enduring in the minds of the public. America loves visionary Presidents.

The character and repute of President Kennedy constitute one of our greatest national resources. Nothing should be done to jeopardize this invaluable asset. When lies must be told, they should be told by subordinate officials.

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.

President George W. Bush, in his now-rare public appearances and interviews, still refuses to acknowledge he did anything to help Iran. But it doesn't really matter what he thinks.

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.

My recurring nightmare is that someday I will be faced with a panel: Franklin Roosevelt, John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all of whom will be telling me everything I got wrong about them. I know that Johnson's out there saying, 'Why is it that what you wrote about the Kennedys is twice as long as the book you wrote about me?'

Woodrow Wilson is an abject coward…. The worst President since Buchanan.

Now, today is the day we honor, of course, the Presidents, ranging from George Washington, who couldn't tell a lie, to George Bush, who couldn't tell the truth, to Bill Clinton, who couldn't tell the difference.