Gerald Ford in The Yale Book of Quotations

[Fred Shapiro]

On Wed, 27 Dec 2006, Laurence Horn wrote:

> And from the now late President Ford, do we have "Our long national
> nightmare is over"?  Anything else from him, other than (indirectly)
> "walk and chew gum at the same time" (which I assume is *not* to be
> credited to Chevy Chase)?

>From The Yale Book of Quotations:

An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of
Representatives considers [it] to be at a given moment in history.
     Remarks in House of Representatives, 15 Apr. 1970

I am a Ford, not a Lincoln.
     Remarks on taking the vice-presidential oath, 6 Dec. 1973

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare [the Watergate scandal]
is over.  Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of
laws and not of men.  Here the people rule.
     Remarks upon taking oath of office, 9 Aug. 1974

Now, THEREFORE, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States,
pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2,
of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full,
free, and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the
United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed
or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9,
1974.
     Proclamation 4311, 8 Sept. 1974

There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe.
     Televised presidential debate, 6 Oct. 1976

If the Government is big enough to give you everything you want, it is big
enough to take away everything you have.
     Quoted in John F. Parker, If Elected, I Promise (1960)

Ford was also the butt of two famous satirical comments by Lyndon Johnson:

That's what happens when you play football too long without a helmet.
     Lyndon B. Johnson, Quoted in N.Y. Times, 30 Apr. 1967

So dumb he can't fart and chew gum at the same time.
     Lyndon B. Johnson, Quoted in Richard Reeves, A Ford, Not a Lincoln
(1975)

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
   Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press
Yale Law School                             ISBN 0300107986
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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