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America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. It is to make kinder the face of the Nation and gentler the face of the world.
January 20, 1989
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I will keep America moving forward, always forward — for a better America, for an endless, enduring dream and a thousand points of light. This is my mission, and I will complete it.
August 18, 1988 — New Orleans, Louisiana
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When the record of our time is finally written, I hope it will be the story of the final triumph of peace and freedom throughout the globe, the story of the sunrise in the day of mankind's age-old aspirations.
January 31, 1989 — Norfolk, Virginia
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From now on in America, any definition of a successful life must include service to others.
February 17, 1989 — St. Louis, Missouri
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Democracy has captured the spirit of our time. Like all forms of government, though it may be defended, democracy can never be imposed. We believe in democracy — for without a doubt, though democracy may be a dream deferred for many, it remains, in my view, the destiny of man.
July 10, 1989 — Warsaw, Poland
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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.
March 23, 1990 — White House South Lawn
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A new world of freedom lies before us, hopeful, confident — a world where peace endures, where commerce has a conscience, and where all that seems possible is possible.
July 9, 1990 — Rice University in Houston, Texas
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Together we must remove the physical barriers we have created and the physical barriers we have accepted. For ours will never be a truly prosperous nation until all within it prosper.
July 26, 1990 — White House South Lawn
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This will not stand. This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait.
August 5, 1990 — White House South Lawn
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There is no question what binds our nations, and so many others, in common cause. There is no question that ours is a just cause and that good will prevail. The darkness in the desert sky cannot stand against the way of light.
November 17, 1990 — Prague, Czechoslovakia
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As someone who has devoted a fair amount of my own life to parts of government and public service, I know that good government simply cannot exist without serious, committed, and hardworking individuals willing to devote their career to public service.
January 9, 1991 — Old Executive Office Building, Room 450
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The liberation of Kuwait has begun.
January 16, 1991 — Oval Office
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Every American involved in service is reaffirming this nation as a community of conscience, a decent land — proud but not boastful — with a national will reaffirmed and redirected, an America that has rediscovered the can-do attitude.
April 12, 1991 — Glenarden, Maryland
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Our Nation faces a wide variety of challenges, but the solution to each problem that confronts us begins with an individual who steps forward and who says, ‘I can help.' Government can only do so much and should only attempt so much, but no limits can hold back people determined to make a difference.
April 26, 1991 — White House South Lawn
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We don't need another Great Society with huge and ambitious programs administered by the incumbent few. We need a Good Society built upon the deeds of the many, a society that promotes service selflessness, action.
May 4, 1991 — Ann Arbor, Michigan
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If we want to lead in the postwar world, we must not build walls of prejudice and doubt. We must involve ourselves in the world around us. We must build ties of mutual interests and affection everywhere.
May 12, 1991 — Hampton, Virginia
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The United States has always stood where duty required us to stand. Now let them say we led where destiny required us to lead, to a more peaceful, hopeful future. We cannot give a more precious gift to the children of the world.
September 27, 1991 — Oval Office
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No one should assume that the opportunity before us to make peace will remain if we fail to seize the moment. Ironically, this is an opportunity born of war, the destruction of past wars, the fear of future wars. The time has come to put an end to war. The time has come to choose peace.
October 30, 1991 — Madrid, Spain
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The United States will always be a force for peace in the world. But the peace we seek is real peace, the triumph of freedom and prosperity, not merely the absence of war.
November 11, 1991
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Some say our victory in the Cold War allows us to pull back to our own water's edge. And I say, just as America's vigilance helped win that war, so a strong America can now help us win the peace.
June 4, 1992 — White House Roosevelt Room
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I will confess, there have been other greater speakers. But to me, real eloquence lies in action.
August 6, 1992 — Colorado Springs, Colorado
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I urge you, the young people of this country, to participate in the political process. It needs your idealism. It needs your drive. It needs your conviction.
November 3, 1992 — Houston, Texas
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I want to be remembered as the guy that did it with honor — that did his best.
February 27, 1996 — Houston, Texas
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Some things are more important than winning, and one of them is loyalty. I don't believe in cutting and running.
August 4, 1996 — Labrador, Canada
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You don't have to be a President to be a leader, and you don't have to be a First Lady to touch the life of someone else.
April 27, 1997 — Presidents' Summit on America's Future in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Now that my political days are over, I can honestly say that the three most rewarding titles I've held are the only three I have left — a husband, a father, and a granddad.
November 6, 1997 — Dedication of the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University
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I don't know if my idol, Lou Gehrig, said it first, but I do know he said it best: today I feel like the luckiest person in the world.
November 6, 1997 — Dedication of the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University
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There's a lot of living to do; and a lot of family to watch; and a lot of fish to catch; very few op-ed pages to write. And I want to be around for the future, and I want to see my grandsons and granddaughters get married and achieve good things.
August 25, 1998
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I've got plenty of differences, plenty of areas where if I didn't feel constrained I would be critical. But I just don't think it's seemly for a former President to always be carping away at The President.
November 2, 1999 — Houston, Texas
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I was President of the United States — watching as the hopes and dreams of mankind, which for so long seemed impossible, became a reality before my eyes. It was a surreal sight — as if Dali himself had painted it. Then came the realization of what we were witnessing. The dam had breached, and freedom was literally cascading over the Berlin Wall.
November 9, 1999 — German Reichstag in Berlin