100+ Jimmy Carter Quotes | InspiringQuotes.us

source: - George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, James Knox Polk, Zachary Taylor, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Richard Milhous Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama (2017). “Inaugural Speeches from the Presidents of the United States - Complete Edition”, p.287, e-artnow sro

Topics: Being True

I've never won an argument with my wife; and the only time I thought I had I found out the argument wasn't over yet.

Topics: Marriage, Wife, Argument

We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.

source: - "SUNDAY INTERVIEW - A Statesman And a Man Of Faith / With a lifetime of public service to his credit, the former president reflects on the beliefs that have sustained him". Interview with Don Lattin, www.sfgate.com. January 12, 1997.

Topics: People, Different, Sin, Sinfulness

The stronger the ties that bind us to God, the more likely we are to live, react, and behave in harmony with...greater joy, peace, and happiness.

source: - Jimmy Carter (2011). “Sources of Strength: Meditations on Scripture for a Living Faith”, p.146, Three Rivers Press

Topics: Spiritual, Godly, Ties, Ties That Bind

I would describe fundamentalism as, first of all, a movement led almost invariably by authoritarian males who consider themselves to be superior to others and who have an overwhelming commitment to subjugate women and to dominate their fellow believers.

Topics: Commitment, Movement, Firsts, Fundamentalism

Life is just too short to go quail hunting with the wrong people.

source: - Jimmy Carter (1988). “An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections”, Bantam

Topics: Hunting, People, Bird, Quails

In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.

source: - Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence, delivered 15 July, 1979

Topics: Strong, Hard Work, Self, No Confidence, Strong Family

Faith implies a continuing search, not necessarily a final answer.

source: - Jimmy Carter (2011). “Living Faith”, p.25, Three Rivers Press

Topics: God, Faith, Hope

My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. It is very nice now when people wave at me, they use all their fingers.

Topics: Country, Nice, People

I am no big shot. I am not anybody's boss. I want to be everybody's servant.

Topics: Boss, Want, Bigs, Big Shots

I think there ought to be a strict separation or wall built between our religious faith and our practice of political authority in office. I don't think the President of the United States should extoll Christianity if he happens to be a Christian at the expense of Judaism, Islam or other faiths.

source: - "Jimmy Carter Interview: Real Story Behind Egypt Israeli Peace Deal". Interview with Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 5, 2012.

Topics: Christian, Religious, Wall

A joyous occasion is never quite as wonderful as when it becomes a memory.

Topics: Memories, Never Quit, Wonderful

The abuse of women and girls is the most pervasive and unaddressed human right violation on earth.

Topics: Girl, Powerful, Abuse, Violence Against Women

To work for better understanding among people, one does not have to be a former president sitting at a fancy conference room table. Peace can be made in the neighborhoods, the living rooms, the playing fields, and the classrooms of our country.

source: - Jimmy Carter (1995). “Talking Peace: A Vision for the Next Generation”, Puffin

Topics: Country, People, Understanding

I think I was identified as a failed president because I wasn't re-elected.

source: - "Jimmy Carter: My Presidency Was A Success". Interview with Lesley Stahl, www.cbsnews.com. September 16, 2010.

Topics: Thinking, President

We can't equate democracy with Christianity because the largest democracy on earth is India, which is primarily Hindu. The third largest democracy is Indonesia, which is Islamic. Democracy and freedom are not dependent on Christian beliefs.

Topics: Christian, Islamic, Democracy

I’m not in favor of the government mandating a prayer in school because our country was founded on the fact that no particular religious faith would have ascendance over or preferential treatment over any other.

Topics: Country, Religious, Prayer, Prayer In School, Preferential Treatment

I am convinced that UFOs exist because I've seen one.

source: - 1976 T V interview, 16 Jun.

Topics: Flying Saucers, Ufo, Prominent

Always tell the truth, and take an interest in serving the people around you as much as possible.

source: - Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

Topics: People, Telling The Truth, Interest

We have seven and a half times as many people in prison. And we have eight times as many black women in prison now as we did in 1981, when I left the White House. So that's been one of the major concerns I've had as a non-lawyer, to criticize the American justice system, which is highly biased against black people and poor people. And it still is.

source: - Source: www.sfgate.com

Topics: Eight, White, Justice, American Justice, Half Time

In the bible homosexuality is condemned, but along with divorce and greed and callousness toward poor people. So its elevation to a highest priority among some religious groups has been very disturbing to me.

source: - "Our Endangered Values". Interview with Jeff Fleischer, www.motherjones.com. June 2, 2006.

Topics: Religious, Divorce, People, Callousness

Homosexuality was massively practiced in some of the conflicting religions at the time of Christ and even at the time of Christ, in Roman times show that homosexuality was widely prevalent. I think it's quite significant that Jesus never did mention it.

source: - Source: www.christianpost.com

Topics: Jesus, Thinking, Christ

I can get up at 8am and be rested... or I can get up at 5am and be President.

Topics: President, Get Up, I Can

I just look at death as not a threat. It's inevitable, and I have an assurance of eternal life.

source: - Jimmy Carter (1998). “Conversations with Carter”, p.55, Lynne Rienner Publishers

Topics: Death, Religion, Looks

Let us learn together and laugh together and work together and pray together, confident that in the end we will triumph together in the right.

source: - United States. President (1977-1981 : Carter), Jimmy Carter (1977). “Jimmy Carter”

Topics: Laughing, Working Together, Triumph

The founding of our Nation was more than a political event; it was an act of faith, a promise to Americans and to the entire world. The Declaration of Independence declared that people can govern themselves, that they can live in freedom with equal rights, that they can respect the rights of others.

Topics: Inspirational Life, Rights, People

A fundamentalist can't bring himself or herself to negotiate with people who disagree with them because the negotiating process itself is an indication of implied equality.

source: - "The US and Israel Stand Alone". Der Spiegel Interview, www.spiegel.de. August 15, 2006.

Topics: People, Process, Implied, Negotiating, Fundamentalist

Each of us must rededicate ourselves to serving the common good. We are a community. Our individual Fates are linked; our futures intertwined; and if we act in that knowledge and in that spirit together, as the Bible says: "We can move mountains."

source: - United States. President (1977-1981 : Carter), Jimmy Carter (1978). “Jimmy Carter”

Topics: Moving, Fate, Community, Common Good, Move Mountains

When I was president, I announced and I still maintain that I can live with Roe v. Wade. I did everything I possibly could as president under that ruling, which I don't think ought to be changed, to minimize the need for abortions. I think every abortion is a result of a horrible series of errors on the part of people involved.

Topics: Thinking, Errors, People, Roe V Wade

Last year I was on Pat Robertson's show, and we discussed our basic Christian faith - for instance, separation of church and state. It's contrary to my beliefs to try to exalt Christianity as having some sort of preferential status in the United States. That violates the Constitution. I'm not in favor of mandatory prayer in school or of using public funds to finance religious education.

Topics: Christian, Religious, Prayer, Prayer In School, Church And State

For the first time in the history of our country the majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years.

source: - "Does Obama Believe Americans Support Tax Hikes?". www.foxnews.com. July 15, 2011.

Topics: Country, Believe, Patriotic

God always answers prayer, sometimes with a yes, sometimes with a no and sometimes with a 'You've got to be kidding!'

Topics: Prayer, Answers, Sometimes

I think the Bible is completely inspired by God in its overall messages. But, for the people of those days to know what was going to happen 4,000 years later in a world of astronomy or subatomic particles. They didn't have access to the knowledge that we presently have about geology. So, we know now that the world was created many of billions of years ago, 13 or 14 billion years ago. As far as they knew, the earth was the center of the universe. They thought that stars were little twinkling things in the sky where as now we know stars are very distant and much larger than the earth.

source: - Source: www.christianpost.com

Topics: Stars, Thinking, Sky, Subatomic Particles

Our laws were not designed to accommodate three or four thousand refugees coming here per day. Our laws were designed for people to be screened in a foreign country, carefully catalogued, and brought here a few at a time. This just didn't happen.

source: - United States. President (1977-1981 : Carter), Jimmy Carter, United States. Office of the Federal Register (1982). “Jimmy Carter”

Topics: Country, Law, People, Foreign Countries, Accommodate

I want to make it clear,if there is ever a conflict [between environmental quality and economic growth], I will go for beauty, clean air, water, and landscape.

source: - The New York Times, September 19, 1976.

Topics: Air, Environmental Quality, Water, Clean Air

According to Gandhi, the seven sins are wealth without works, pleasure without conscience, knowledge without character, commerce without morality, science without humanity, worship without sacrifice, and politics without principle. Well, Hubert Humphrey may have sinned in the eyes of God, as we all do, but according to those definitions of Gandhi's, it was Hubert Humphrey without sin.

source: - United States. President (1977-1981 : Carter), Jimmy Carter (1978). “Jimmy Carter”

Topics: Hard Work, Knowledge, Character, Without Sacrifice, Seven Sins

In the final analysis, true justice is not a matter of courts and law books, but of a commitment in each of us to liberty and mutual respect.

source: - Jimmy Earl Carter “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, Jimmy Carter, 1978, Book 1: January 1 to June 30, 1978”, Government Printing Office

Topics: Respect, Book, Commitment, Law Books, Mutual Respect

Whether the borders that divide us are picket fences or national boundaries, we are all neighbors in a global community.

Topics: Community, Borders, Boundaries, Picket Fences, Global Community

We don't have any problem finding enough things to do; the problem we have is making sure we don't overload ourselves inadvertently.

Topics: Problem, Enough

The existing and long-standing use of the word 'evolution' in our state's textbooks has not adversely affected Georgians' belief in the omnipotence of God as creator of the universe, There can be no incompatibility between Christian faith and proven facts concerning geology, biology, and astronomy. There is no need to teach that stars can fall out of the sky and land on a flat Earth in order to defend our religious faith.

source: - "Carter slams Georgia's 'evolution' proposal". The CNN Interview, edition.cnn.com. January 30, 2004.

Topics: Christian, Religious, Stars, Incompatibility, Georgians

I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history... The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me.

source: - "Carter blasts Bush, Blair on Iraq". www.reuters.com. May 20, 2007.

Topics: Thinking, Impact, America, George H W Bush, Reversal

A country will have authority and influence because of moral factors, not its military strength; because it can be humble and not blatant and arrogant; because our people want to serve others and not dominate others. And a nation without morality will soon lose its influence around the world.

source: - Jimmy Carter (2005). “Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis”, p.59, Simon and Schuster

Topics: Country, Military, Humble

The election of Barack Obama was a very wonderful step forward for America, which has unfortunately been tainted by the ugly reaction of some right wing activist who are doing their best to cast aspersions on his character and to question his religion and citizenship.

Topics: Character, Wings, America, Aspersion

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. It is widespread. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths.

source: - "The words of God do not justify cruelty to women". theelders.org. July 12, 2009.

Topics: Men, Views, Atheism

When I was in the White House, I was confronted with the challenge of the Cold War. Both the Soviet Union and I had 30,000 nuclear weapons that could destroy the entire earth and I had to maintain the peace.

source: - "Interview: President Jimmy Carter Talks About His New Bible and Christian Beliefs". Interview with Katherine T. Phan, www.christianpost.com. March 30, 2012.

Topics: War, White, House, Soviet Union, Soviet

I think with the advent of Reagan, and subsequently, both parties, there's been a strong move towards the advantage given to the richer people, in taxation and grants and supplements and things of that kind. Primarily exacerbated more recently by the Supreme Court's stupid ruling on Citizens United, and now there's a massive flood of money into the political system that I think has subverted the essence of a moral and ethical standard that used to permeate American democracy. Now it's not an admirable process. I think we've gone backwards.

source: - Source: www.sfgate.com

Topics: Strong, Stupid, Party, Ethical Standards, Supplements

If I should ever decide in the future to discuss my deep Christian beliefs and condemnation and sinfulness, I would use another forum besides Playboy.

source: - Jimmy Carter, Gerald R. Ford, United States. Congress. House. Committee on House Administration (1978). “The Presidential campaign 1976”

Topics: Christian, Religion, Guilt

America is constantly involved in unnecessary wars.

Topics: War, America, Unnecessary, Unnecessary War

Billy Graham is one of my great lifetime heroes. I think he epitomizes the essence of what a Christian leader should be. I have participated in some of his crusades a couple of times in Atlanta. I've seen the profound impact he's had on me personally, and on other people who were not Christians and accepted Christ as Savior.

Topics: Christian, Couple, Hero, Christian Leaders

On Saint Paul, he's probably one of the best theologians of all time, but I don't believe that some of his teachings are appropriate today.

source: - Source: www.christianpost.com

Topics: Believe, Teaching, Saint, Saint Paul

My proudest accomplishment was that I never dropped a bomb, fired a bullet, or shot a missile.

source: - Former President Jimmy Carter address to the students and community members at the Lady Bird Johnson Auditorium, February 16, 2011.

Topics: Accomplishment, Bombs, Bullets

I have a great respect for the flag, (but) if the government passed a law saying that I had to pledge allegiance to the flag, I don't think I would do it. I've always felt that I lived in a country...where if I wanted to worship God as a Baptist, I could do so. If I were an atheist, I could be one. If I wanted to be a Catholic but was born a Jew, there's no condemnation...from a government authority.

Topics: Country, Atheist, Thinking, Great Respect

There's no doubt that the Christian right has gone to bed with the more conservative elements of the Republican Party. And there's been a melding in their goals when it comes to the separation of church and state. I've always believed in the separation of church and state.

source: - "SUNDAY INTERVIEW -- A Statesman And a Man Of Faith / With a lifetime of public service to his credit, the former president reflects on the beliefs that have sustained him". Interview with Don Lattin, www.sfgate.com. January 12, 1997.

Topics: Christian, Party, Goal

You can not divorce religious belief and public service. I've never detected any conflict between God's will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.

Topics: Religious, Believe, Divorce, Religious Belief

When I ran, I didn't have any money. Now, it requires raising hundreds of millions of dollars just to get the nomination, and I don't care to be involved in that process.

source: - Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

Topics: Dollars, Care, Nominations

I have never been happier, more exhilarated, at peace, rested, inspired, and aware of the grandeur of the universe and the greatness of God than when I find myself in a natural setting not much changed from the way He made it.

source: - Jimmy Carter (1994). “An Outdoor Journal: Adventures and Reflections”, p.6, University of Arkansas Press

Topics: Nature, Greatness, Way

Thoughtful criticism and close scrutiny of all government officials by the press and the public are an important part of our democratic society.

source: - Carter, Jimmy (1981). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Jimmy Carter, 1980-1981”, p.2890, Best Books on

Topics: Thoughtful, Government, Criticism, Democratic Society, Government Officials

I think that the best approach would be if the American people ever insist that we cut down on the massive amounts of money that moves into the campaigns from special interest groups, and if we resist publicly by saying "No more negative advertisements that destroy the reputations of one's opponents." In the meantime, just don't pay any attention to negative ads, if you can avoid them, and try to focus on the issues.

source: - "President Jimmy Carter ‘NIV Lessons from Life Bible’ Interview with Kam Williams". Interview with Kam Williams, newsblaze.com. May 22, 2012.

Topics: Moving, Cutting, Thinking, Special Interest Groups

When I reflect upon my blessings during my very nice lifetime, I am inspired to make sure that I spend the balance of the days of my existence in a productive way.

source: - Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

Topics: Nice, Blessing, Balance, My Blessing

We cannot resort to simplistic or extreme solutions which substitute myths for common sense.

source: - United States. President (1977-1981 : Carter), Jimmy Carter (1979). “Jimmy Carter”

Topics: Common Sense, Substitutes, Resorts

I am pro-Israeli, not because of political expediency, but because I believe Israel is the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.

Topics: Believe, Biblical, Israel, Israeli

I have a great deal of confidence in myself and in my faith.

source: - Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

Topics: Deals

I believe there is complete equality between men and women. And I believe those passages in the New Testament, not by Jesus, but by Paul, that say women should not adorn themselves, they should always wear hats or color their hair in church - things like that - I think they are signs of the times and should not apply to modern-day life.

source: - "Interview: President Jimmy Carter Talks About His New Bible and Christian Beliefs". Interview with Katherine T. Phan, www.christianpost.com. March 30, 2012.

Topics: Jesus, Believe, Men, Modern Day

Two centuries ago our nation's birth was a milestone in the long quest for freedom, but the bold and brilliant dream which excited the founders of our nation still awaits its consummation. I have no new dream to set forth today, but rather urge a fresh faith in the old dream.

source: - United States. President (1977-1981 : Carter), Jimmy Carter (1977). “Jimmy Carter”

Topics: Dream, Two, Long

I believe that the boycott that we have against Cuba is counterproductive, and it also makes the twelve million or so Cuban people suffer unnecessarily just because of a foolish policy of the United States.

source: - Source: www.pittsburghurbanmedia.com

Topics: Believe, People, Suffering

And so I say to you and to others around the world, whether they wish us well or ill - do not underestimate us Americans. We lack neither strength nor wisdom.

source: - "Carter: 'At stake is nothing less than our nation's soul'". Speech at the Democratic National Convention, edition.cnn.com. July 27, 2004.

Topics: Wish, World, Underestimate

What has happened at Guantanamo Bay... does not represent the will of the American people. I'm embarrassed about it, I think its wrong. I think it does give terrorists an unwarranted excuse to use the despicable means to hurt innocent people.

Topics: Hurt, Mean, Thinking, Hurt Feelings, Guantanamo