35 citaten van George Bush sr.

1) I’ve told you I don’t live and die by the polls. Thus, I will refrain from pointing out that we’re not doing too bad in those polls.

2) For seven and a half years I’ve worked alongside President Reagan. We’ve had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We’ve had some sex … uh…setbacks.”

3) “The Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, they’ll push again and I’ll say to them, read my lips, no new taxes.”

4) “I’ll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most.”

5) “People say I’m indecisive, but I don’t know about that.”

6) “I think that the undecided could go one way or the other”

7) I have opinions of my own — strong opinions — but I don’t always agree with them.

8) Nobody said it was going to be easy, and nobody was right.

9) Obviously no country can claim a special place in God’s heart, yet we are better as a people because He has a special place in ours…I want to thank you for helping America, as Christ ordained, to be a light unto the world…

10) “It’s a very good question, very direct, and I’m not going to answer it.”

11) The problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur.

12) “I want to make sure everybody who has a job wants a job”

!3) “And so I do understand New Hampshire because I have this wonderfully warm feeling that New Hampshire feels exactly the way we do on these questions of family values and faith. Somebody said to me, we prayed for you over there. That was not just because I threw up on the Prime Minister of Japan, either

14) If a frog had wings, he wouldn’t hit his tail on the ground. ‘If.’ Too hypothetical.”

15) What’s wrong with being a boring kind of guy?.

16) “I’ve often thought that the process of aging could be slowed down if it had to go through Congress.”

17) “Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.”

18) Flag burning is wrong. I believe the importance of this issue compels me to call for a constitutional amendment.”

19) “For more than forty years, America and its allies held communism in check and insured that democracy would continue to exist. And today, with communism crumbling, our aim must be to insure democracy’s advance, to take the lead in forging peace and freedoms best hope, a great and growing commonwealth of free nations.”

20) “Appeasement does not work. As was the case in the 1930s, we see in Saddam Hussein an aggressive dictator threatening his neighbors.”

21) A line has been drawn in the sand…Withdraw from Kuwait unconditionally and immediately, or face the terrible consequences.”

22) “As I report to you, air attacks are under way against military targets in Iraq…I’ve told the American people before that this will not be another Vietnam. And I repeat this here tonight. Our troops will have the best possible support in the entire world, and they will not be asked to fight with one hand tied behind their back.”
Toespraak van George Bush to het volk op 16 januari 1991

23) “Our objectives are clear. Saddam Hussein’s forces will leave Kuwait. The legitimate government of Kuwait will be restored to its rightful place and Kuwait once again will be free. Iraq will eventually comply with all relevant United Nations resolutions…”

24) “If anyone tells you that America’s best days are behind her, they’re looking the wrong way.”

25) “I do not like broccoli. And I haven’t liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I’m President of the United States and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli.”

26) “I think the major event that shaped my life was being a Naval aviator. I got my commission and wings at 18 years old, and then I went into combat at 19. And I think, as I look back on it, that whole experience probably shaped my life more than any incident, or any event.”

27) “I remember when I was shot down in that war. I remember how terrified I was. And it made me feel close to my family, and to God, and to life, and I was scared.”

28) “Then we lost a child, there was that incident, a four year-old little girl. It had a profound effect on me and on Barbara. You know, . . . when you lose a child some families go apart. There’s a common wisdom that the loss of a loved one for parents divides them later on. People cite divorce statistics. In our case it was just the other way around. And our family has been close, close, close. And Barbara and I have been married for over 50 years, and I think that horrible incident drew us even closer together.”

29) “It’s family, and it’s faith, and it’s friends, and it’s not the glamour of the Presidency, or the wonder of going to receive the Nobel Prize. All those are important, of course. But maybe it’s just that I’m 71 years old now. It’s family, and it’s faith, and it’s friends. I would tell them that. Don’t forget that. In your brilliance, don’t turn your back on your friends. Don’t think you’re entitled to something, you’re smarter than the next guy.”

30) “It has been said by some cynic, maybe it was a former president, ‘If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.’ Well, we took them literally — that advice — as you know. But I didn’t need that because I have Barbara Bush.”

31) “When I need a little advice about Saddam Hussein, I turn to country music.”

32) “I’ve been talking the same way for years, so it can’t be that serious.”

33) “Fluency in English is something that I’m often not accused of.”

34) “If you’re worried about caribou, take a look at the arguments that were used about the pipeline. They’d say the caribou would be extinct. You’ve got to shake them away with a stick. They’re all making love lying up against the pipeline and you got thousands of caribou up there.”
Bush in 1991 in toespraak over een oliepijp naar Alaska

35) “We Bushes cry easily.”
Uitspraak gedaan in 1989