This is a very hard choice. For example, I man not agree with many of Reagan’s policies, but undoubtedly, he was a good public speaker. I may really agree with FDR’s vision for America, but even though he was a great speaker, I don’t know that he was the absolute best of the last century. Of course, Clinton was a great speaker, and he may well have been the best unscripted speaker of the last century (in 1994, during his state of the union address, the teleprompter went out for more than 8 minutes and no one ever even knew), but I don’t think that Clinton delivered the most insightful quotes of the last century.
My choice is Harry S. Truman with FDR as a close second.
My favorite Truman quotes are:
“A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.”
“A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who's been dead for 15 years.”
“A President needs political understanding to run the government, but he may be elected without it.”
“Always be sincere, even if you don't mean it.”
“I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.”
“I never gave anybody hell! I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.”
“If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”
“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.”
“It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.”
“The buck stops here!”
“The White House is the finest prison in the world.”
“To hell with them. When history is written they will be the sons of bitches - not I.”
“When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.”
“You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.”
My favorite FDR quotes are:
”A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward.”
“Here is my principle: Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay. That is the only American principle.”
“I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
“I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.”
“It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.”
“Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself.”
“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”
“When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.”
Some of my favorite Reagan quotes are:
“Before I refuse to take your questions, I have an opening statement.”
“But there are advantages to being elected President. The day after I was elected, I had my high school grades classified Top Secret”
“Facts are stubborn things.”
“I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.”
“I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.”
“It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?”
“Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”
