Dec 29, 2024 - Politics & Policy
10 memorable Jimmy Carter quotes
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Visitors tour the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
A person says a lot of words in 100 years, especially when that person is a president.
Here are 10 Jimmy Carter quotes that serve as small windows into the former president:
"I preferred to plow without wearing shoes, and I remember vividly the caress of the soft, damp, and cool freshly turned earth on my feet."— On growing up on a farm. (Carter Presidential Library)
"The movies have touched all our lives — mine as a farm boy. It gave me a vision of the outside world. I’m sure the first time I saw the White House was in the back seat of a movie theater."
– At a reception for the American Film Institute 10th Anniversary Gala, Nov. 17, 1977.
"I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over. The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few, but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend upon it."— Inaugural address as Governor of Georgia. (Carter Presidential Library)
"It is time for the people to run the government, not the other way around."— Acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1976. (Carter Presidential Library)
"Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late."— Carter in a New York Times op-ed, Jan. 5, 2022.
"The darnedest thing I've ever seen."— Describing what he believed to be a UFO outside of a Lions Club Meeting in Leary, Georgia, in 1969. (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer)
"We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles."— This one's actually from Carter’s grade-school teacher, Julia Coleman. Carter quoted it during his Nobel Peace Prize address in 2002.
"The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices."— Carter’s closing remarks during that same Nobel Peace Prize address.
"I have one life and one chance to make it count for something. I’m free to choose that something … my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can."— Undated quote, cited by Carter's niece at Maranatha Baptist Church on Feb. 19, 2023. (AP)
"I love you the goodest."— What Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter said to each other throughout their 77-year marriage. Jimmy once told People magazine that he picked it up from his parents, and later his children said it to their spouses.
