Great presidential quotes to get us through the Trump Presidency

The last time our elected leaders in Washington put the right to life ahead of the right to bear military-style assault rifles. 

"I think to hide behind the right of sports people to justify the types of unconscionable behavior that takes place every single day on the streets of this country is an unforgivable abuse of our common right to be hunters. ... It's amazing to me that we even have to have this debate. How long are we going to allow this to go on. ... This is not a complicated issue. This is a laydown, no-brainer, and the Congress must not walk away from it."

-- Bill Clinton, while advocating for the 1994 assault weapons ban

Happy Presidents Day! With the basic principle of truth under assault in this country like never before, these simple words from our first president are worth remembering today, and always. 

"Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light." -- George Washington

In honor of our greatest president's birthday, a quote that rings especially true today, when the current occupant of the White House traffics in never-ending lies and demagoguery in an effort to unravel our freedoms for his own benefit. 

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." -- Abraham Lincoln

After a long hiatus, I'm reviving my "Great Presidential Quotes to get us through the Trump Presidency" blog post.

Now that I'm immersed in Ron Chernow's 1,000-page Grant biography, this seems like a good time to turn to our most underrated president (and greatest general). This quote in particular seems fitting in light of the current president's efforts to attack others over matters of patriotism and support for the military, despite the fact he never sacrificed a thing for his nation. Somehow, I doubt that Grant ever suffered a case of bone spurs, though he did clearly suffer a lonesome heart from his wistful letters to Julia Dent (winning the Civil War was a piece of cake compared with winning her heart in marriage.)

"I suffer the mortification of seeing myself attacked right and left by people at home professing patriotism and love of country who never heard the whistle of a hostile bullet. I pity them and the nation dependent on such for its existence. I am thankful, however that, though such people make a great noise, the masses are not like them." -- Ulysses S. Grant

“Knowledge will forever govern ignorance, and a people who mean to be their own governors, must arm themselves with the power knowledge gives. A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce or a tragedy or perhaps both.” -- James Madison 

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." -- John Adams

"Of course, there are dangers in religious freedom and freedom of opinion. But to deny these rights is worse than dangerous, it is absolutely fatal to liberty." -- Harry S Truman

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else."  -- Theodore Roosevelt

“Let me speak plainly: The United States of America is and must remain a nation of openness to people of all beliefs. Our very unity has been strengthened by this pluralism. That's how we began; this is how we must always be. The ideals of our country leave no room whatsoever for intolerance, anti-Semitism, or bigotry of any kind -- none. The unique thing about America is a wall in our Constitution separating church and state. It guarantees there will never be a state religion in this land, but at the same time it makes sure that every single American is free to choose and practice his or her religious beliefs or to choose no religion at all. Their rights shall not be questioned or violated by the state." -- Ronald Reagan

"It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." -- Abraham Lincoln

"Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us." -- John F. Kennedy

"My first wish ... is to see the whole world in peace, and the inhabitants of it as one band of brothers, striving who could contribute most to the happiness of mankind." -- George Washington

"Governments can err, Presidents can make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us, that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted in different scales. Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in the spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference."-- Franklin Roosevelt

“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles.” -- Thomas Jefferson