Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter: Wherever life takes us, there are always moments of wonder.

Jimmy Carter: Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.

Jimmy Carter: Anyone can be successful in life, regardless of natural talent or the environment in which they live. This is not based on measuring success by human competitiveness for wealth, possessions, influence and fame, but adhering to God's standards of truth, justice, humility, service, compassion, forgiveness, and love.

Jimmy Carter: (Nobel Lecture, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2002) The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices. God gives us the capacity for choice. We can choose to alleviate suffering. We can choose to work together for peace. We can make these changes - and we must.

Jimmy Carter: (Nobel Lecture, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2002) The most serious and universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth. Citizens of the ten wealthiest countries are now seventy-five times richer than those who live in the ten poorest ones, and the separation is increasing every year, not only between nations but also within them.

Jimmy Carter: (Farewell Address, 1980) We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century. During the period we may be tempted to abandon some of the time-honored principles and commitments which have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation. Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities- not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.

Jimmy Carter: Human rights is the soul of our foreign policy, because human rights is the very soul of our sense of nationhood.

Jimmy Carter: (2004 Democratic National Convention) Ultimately, the basic issue is whether America will provide global leadership that springs from the unity and the integrity of the American people, or whether extremist doctrines, the manipulation of the truth, will define America's role in the world. At stake is nothing less than our nation's soul. But I am not discouraged. I really am not. I do not despair for our country. I never do. I believe, as I always have, the essential decency and compassion and common sense of the American people will prevail.

Jimmy (On Donald Rumsfeld) : I think he's one of the worst secretaries of defense we've ever had. Almost every decision he has made has aggravated his military subordinates and has also proved to be a mistake.

Jimmy: I have one life and one chance to make it count for something... I'm free to choose what that something is, and the something I've chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands, this is not optional, my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.

Jimmy: If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.

Jimmy: America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way around. Human rights invented America.

Jimmy: Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities -- not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.

Jimmy: Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

Jimmy: A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. If it's a weak nation, like a weak person, it behave's with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.

Jimmy: War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.

Jimmy: The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.