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Presidential Quotes for Speeches
Words of Wisdom

By Martin Kelly, About.com

Hopefully, these quotes by former presidents will inspire you and those around you to achieve to the highest degree. Many of them provide an excellent basis for graduation and other speeches.
  1. "Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company." ~George Washington
  2. "I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy." ~John Adams
  3. "Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost."~John Quincy Adams
  4. ""The influence of each human being on others in this life is a kind of immortality."~John Quincy Adams
  5. "Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error." ~Andrew Jackson
  6. "One man with courage makes a majority."~Andrew Jackson
  7. ""It is easier to do a job right than to explain why you didn't."~Martin Van Buren
  8. "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."~Abraham Lincoln
  9. "It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of the people all the time."~Abraham Lincoln
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