52 Interesting Facts About Jimmy Carter That You Should Know

Last updated on December 21st, 2020

Interesting and inspirational quotes by James Earl Carter

1. “Testing oneself is best when done alone.”

2. “If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement.”

3. “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.”

4. “My decision to register women confirms what is already obvious throughout our society-that women are now providing all types of skills in every profession. The military should be no exception.”

5. “It is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.”

6. “We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.”

7. “You can’t divorce religious belief and public service. I’ve never detected any conflict between God’s will and my political duty. If you violate one, you violate the other.”

8. “Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.”

9. “America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.”

10. “You can do what you have to do, and sometimes you can do it even better than you think you can.”

11. “It’s not necessary to fear the prospect of failure but to be determined not to fail.”

12. “We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war.”

13. “I hate to see complacency prevail in our lives when it’s so directly contrary to the teaching of Christ.”

14. “I am confident that when the facts and policies have been examined, when the record of performances have been reviewed, Barack Obama and Joe Biden will once again be elected to lead our beloved country to a better future.”

15. “War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”

16. “My position has always been, along with many other people, that any differences be resolved in a nonviolent way.”

17. “We have no desire to be the world’s policeman. But America does want to be the world’s peacemaker.”

18. “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.”

19. “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.”

20. “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.”

21. “When people are intimidated about having their own opinions, oppression is at hand.”

22. “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.”

23. “Spirit is like the wind, in that we can’t see it but can see its effects, which are profound.”

24. “I’m not in favor of the government mandating a prayer in school because our country was founded on the fact that no particular religious faith would have ascendance over or preferential treatment over any other.”

25. “The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens. As Americans, we are blessed with circumstances that protect our human rights and our religious freedom, but for many people around the world, deprivation and persecution have become a way of life.”

26. “You only have to have two loves in your life: for God, and for the person in front of you at any particular time.”

27. “The principle of treating others the same way one would like to be treated is echoed in at least twelve religions of the world. “Others” transcend gender, race, class, sexual orientation or caste. Whoever and whatever the “other” is, she has to be treated with dignity, kindness, love, and respect. In African communitarian spirituality, this is well expressed in the Ubuntu religious and ethical ideal of “I am because you are, and since we are, therefore I am”—a mandate based on the reality of our being interconnected and interdependent as creation. Therefore pain caused to one is pain shared by all.”

28. “We cannot know the mystery of the future.”

29. “Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities — not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.”

30. “To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others.”

31. “Whether the borders that divide us are picket fences or national boundaries, we are all neighbors in a global community.”

Jimmy Carter – fast facts about the 39th U.S. President