Chester A. Arthur/Quotes

Quotes

 * What a pleasant lot of fellows they are. What a pity they have so little sense about politics. If they lived North the last one of them would be Republicans.
 * As quoted in Recollections of Thirteen Presidents, John S. Wise (1906).


 * The office of the Vice-President is a greater honor than I ever dreamed of attaining.
 * As quoted in Random Recollections of an Old Political Reporter, William C. Hudson (1911).

1880s

 * Honors to me now are not what they once were.
 * Written on the death of his wife, Ellen. As quoted in Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur, ch. 8, Thomas C. Reeves (1975).


 * There are very many characteristics which go into making a model civil servant. Prominent among them are probity, industry, good sense, good habits, good temper, patience, order, courtesy, tact, self-reliance, many deference to superior officers, and many consideration for inferiors.
 * First annual message (1881).


 * Indiana was really, I suppose, a Democratic State. It has always been put down in the book as a state that might be carried by a close and careful and perfect organization and a great deal of— [from audience: “soap,” in reference to purchased votes, the word being followed by laughter]. I see reporters here, and therefore I will simply say that everybody showed a great deal of interest in the occasion, and distributed tracts and political documents all through the country.
 * The remarks concerned the presidential election of 1880.
 * As quoted in The New York Times (12 February 1881).


 * The extravagant expenditure of public money is an evil not to be measured by the value of that money to the people who are taxed for it.
 * Veto message of Rivers and Harbor Bill (1882).


 * I trust the time is nigh when, with the universal assent of civilized people, all international differences shall be determined without resort to arms by the benignant processes of civilization.
 * Second annual message (1882).


 * Experience has shown that the trade of the East is the key to national wealth and influence.
 * Veto message of Chinese Exclusion Act (1882).


 * Men may die, but the fabric of our free institutions remains unshaken.
 * Said upon the death of President Garfield, as quoted in Messages and Papers of the Presidents, vol. 8 (1897).


 * Madam, I may be President of the United States, but my private life is nobody's damn business.
 * To a temperance reformer.
 * Quoted in Gentleman Boss: The Life of Chester Alan Arthur, ch. 8, Thomas C. Reeves (1975).