Jimmy Carter is familiar globally because he served as the 39th U.S.A. president from 1977to 1981. Before vying for the presidency, he had initially served as the Governor of Georgia and also served as a Senator of the Georgia Senate from 1971 to 1975. Through his leadership, he generated a mandate, which was responsive, competent, and compassionate. With that said, he still encountered some setbacks as a President, like Iran hostage-taking, energy crisis, the war in Afghanistan, and inflation. But despite all this, Jimmy Carter handled all these issues with commitment and courage.
After his term as the President, he continued to be active in public affairs and demonstrated simultaneous principles in line with spirituality and honesty. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that he won the Nobel Peace Prize award in 2002 for his excellent work in expanding and enhancing human rights. Furthermore, his thoughts and opinion on different themes were a source of inspiration to many. He had words of wisdom on honesty, fairness, justice, and peace.
Jimmy Carter’s quotes were generated from his many books, speeches and interviews – we have compiled the best ones since some of our audience requested these.
Inspiring Jimmy Carter Quotes
1. “A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It is a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.”-Jimmy Carter.
2. “God always answers prayers. Sometimes it’s “yes.” Sometimes the answer is “no.” Sometimes it’s “you gotta be kidding.”-Jimmy Carter.
3. “I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history…The overt reversal of America’s basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me.”-Jimmy Carter.
4. “The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the Social and the Political fabric of America. The confidence that we have always had as a people is not simply some romantic dream or a proverb in a dusty book that we read, just on the Fourth of July. It is the idea of which founded our nation and has guided us in our development as a people. Confidence in the future has supported everything else. We’ve always believed in a thing called progress. We’ve always had a faith that the days of our children would be better than our own. Our people are losing that faith. For the first time in the history of our country, a majority of our people believe that the next five years will be worse than the past five years. We were taught that our armies were always invincible and our causes were always just, only to suffer the agony of Vietnam. We respected the presidency as a place of honor until the shock of Watergate. We’ve got to stop crying and start sweating. Stop talking and start walking. Working together, with our common faith, we cannot fail.”- Jimmy Carter.
5. “The bottom line is this: Peace will come to Israel and the Middle East only when the Israeli government is willing to comply with international law, with the Roadmap for Peace, with official American policy, with the wishes of a majority of its own citizens–and honor its own previous commitments–by accepting its legal borders. All Arab neighbors must pledge to honor Israel’s right to live in peace under these conditions. The United States is squandering international prestige and goodwill and intensifying global anti-American terrorism by unofficially condoning or abetting the Israeli confiscation and colonization of Palestinian territories.”-Jimmy Carter.
6. “We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”-Jimmy Carter.
7. “Earlier in my life, I thought the things that mattered were the things that you could see, like your car, your house, your wealth, your property, your office. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve become convinced that the things that matter most are the things that you can’t see — the love you share with others, your inner purpose, your comfort with who you are.”-Jimmy Carter.
8. “I believe that anyone can be successful in life, regardless of natural talent or the environment within which we live. This is not based on measuring success by human competitiveness for wealth, possessions, influence, and fame, but adhering to God’s standards of truth, justice, humility, service, compassion, forgiveness, and love.”- Jimmy Carter.
9. “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something… My faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”-Jimmy Carter.
10. “Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself, and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this clearer than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use… Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce [28g] of marijuana.”- Jimmy Carter.
11. “The experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.”-Jimmy Carter.
12. “When I was in the White House, I was confronted with the challenge of the Cold War. Both the Soviet Union and I had 30,000 nuclear weapons that could destroy the entire earth, and I had to maintain the peace.”-Jimmy Carter.
13. “When I was elected President, nobody asked me to negotiate between Israel and Egypt. It was not even a question raised in my campaign. But I felt that one of the reasons that I was elected President was to try to bring peace to the Holy Land.”- Jimmy Carter.
14. “My understanding of racial discrimination as a child was highly distorted because the most prominent man in Archery was an African-American bishop. When he came home from up north, where he was in charge of A.M.E. churches in five states, it was front-page news. He was the most successful man in my life.”-Jimmy Carter.
15. “On balance, my life has been a constant stream of blessings rather than disappointments and failures and tragedies. I wish I had been re-elected. I think I could have kept our country at peace. I think I could have consolidated what we achieved at Camp David with a treaty between Israel and the Palestinians.”-Jimmy Carter.
16. “This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the church’s walls, mosque, synagogue, or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women’s equal rights across the world for centuries. At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation, and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment, and influence within their own communities… The truth is that male religious leaders have had — and still have — an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter.”-Jimmy Carter.
17. “My mother’s influence to take on new challenges and do what I thought was right even though sometimes the consequences politically speaking were not good. My mother was vivacious, and she was full of life, she got up every morning looking forward to the day, trying to figure out what she could do that was innovative and unprecedented and maybe controversial.”-Jimmy Carter,
18. “There’s always enough to fill up the headlines in a newspaper, the evening news broadcasts. I’m always grateful when I get the weekly news magazines on Monday morning and don’t see my picture on the front.”-Jimmy Carter.
19. “I’m going to stay active as long as I can politically, and with the Carter Center primarily, and if I’m able mentally and physically, will continue to be quite active.”-Jimmy Carter.
20. “Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.”-Jimmy Carter.
21. “I have one life and one chance to make it count for something . . . I’m free to choose what that something is, and the something I’ve chosen is my faith. Now, my faith goes beyond theology and religion and requires considerable work and effort. My faith demands — this is not optional — my faith demands that I do whatever I can, wherever I am, whenever I can, for as long as I can with whatever I have to try to make a difference.”-Jimmy Carter.
22. “Failure is a reality; we all fail at times, and it’s painful when we do. But it’s better to fail while striving for something wonderful, challenging, adventurous, and uncertain than to say, ” I don’t want to try because I may not succeed completely.”-Jimmy Carter.
23. “Since 2001, the U.S. government has abandoned its role as a champion of human rights and has perpetrated terrible and illegal abuses in prisons in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, sent prisoners secretly to other nations to be tortured, denied the applicability of the Geneva Convention restraints, and severely restricted time-honored civil liberties within our own country. Certain political leaders of other nations, who are inclined to perpetrate human rights abuses to quiet dissenting voices and were previously restrained by positive influence from Washington, now feel free to emulate or exceed the abuses approved by American leaders.”-Jimmy Carter.
24. “We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different hopes, different dreams.”-Jimmy Carter.
25. “God always answers prayers. Sometimes it’s “yes.” Sometimes the answer is “no.” Sometimes it’s “you gotta be kidding.”-Jimmy Carter.
Carter was elected to the president after he beat Gerald Ford in the 1976 election. Carter was known for his calmness and low profile. By contrast, Donald Trump was quite brash and created a lot of friction and drama. See our Donald Trump Quotes.
During his time in office, Carter was disliked by many Americans. James Buchanan had a similar experience and was regarded by many historians as the worst US president ever. See our collection of James Buchanan Quotes.
Video: 1980 Presidential Debate Reagan vs. Carter
This is the full debate from October 28, 1980. This is a classic debate. Ronal Reagan beat Carter to win the presidency and his debate performance is cited as historians as something that contributed strongly to his victory. Even if you only watch 5 minutes of it, you will see how they come across in terms of non verbal cues and confidence levels.
Summary
Jimmy Carter is familiar because of his powerful quotes and leadership skills. He knew how to handle different matters in society, and he will be memorable for his work in finding peaceful solutions, especially whenever he experienced international conflict. History will always have him among the leaders who fought to enhance human rights as well as democracy.
Through his quotes, he has shown other leaders the footsteps to follow and this way their leadership would be much better. For this reason, Jimmy Carter is famed globally for his inspirational quotes filled with wisdom. Therefore, ensure that you create time to go through them get a positive view of life. It would help if you stayed encouraged and motivated with the quotes mentioned above
Image Credit: “No Known Restrictions: President Jimmy Carter Announces Sanctions on Iran by Marion S. Trikosko, 1980 (LOC)” by pingnews.com is marked with CC PDM 1.0
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