On February 13, the New York Times published a great full-page ad that consisted of quotes from previous presidents and other eminent people. It was titled “Mr. President, in anticipation of Presidents‘ Day consider the following words of counsel and caution.”

The ad contains  57 quotes. The article was summarized in Forbes, including some of them.

I could not find a link to the ad.

Here are some of the quotes.

1. Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel in order to be tough. President Franklin D. Roosevelt

2. Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may Be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of things. President John Adams

3. Let us not seek the Tepublican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer.  Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past, let us accept responsibility for the future. President John F. Kennedy

4. Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. Mark Twain

5. The freedom of speech may be taken away—and dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter. President George Washington

6. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. President Harry S Truman

7. I would rather the man who presents something for my consideration subject me to a Zephyr of truth and a gentle breeze of responsibility rather than blow me down with a curtain of hot wind. President Glover Cleveland

8. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President…is morally treasonous to the American public. President Theodore Roosevelt

9. How can we love our country, and not also love our countrymen. President Ronald Reagan

10. We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant. President Jimmy Carter

11. No person was ever honored for what he earned. Honor has been the reward for what he gave. President Calvin Coolidge

12. He that is of the opinion money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money. Benjamin Franklin

13. Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost. President John Quincy Adams

21. Whenever you do a thing, act as if all the world were watching. President Thomas Jefferson

23. This country will not be a good place for any of us to live in if it is not a reasonably good place for all of us to live in. President Theodore Roosevelt

30. Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with important matters. Albert Einstein

36. There is nothing new in the world e  pet the history you do not know. President Harry S Truman

40. It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own. President Herbert Hoover

41. When you single out any particular group of citizens for secondary citizenship status, that’s a violation of basic human rights. President Jimmy Carter

44. 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 too little. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt

45. A people who values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. President Dwight D. Eisenhower

50. Leave the matter of religion to the Family altar, the church, and the private school. Keep the church and the state forever separate. President Ulysses S. Grant

52. No man has a good enough memory to be a successful liar. President Abraham Lincoln

54.You can give a man an Office, but you cannot give him Discretion. Benjamin Franklin

56. America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination, and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand. President Harry S Truman

57. In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King, Jr.