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Our American values are not luxuries, but necessities -- not the salt in our bread, but the bread itself.
JIMMY CARTER, Farewell Address, Jan. 14, 1981
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.
JIMMY CARTER, Nobel Lecture, Dec. 10, 2002
To be true to ourselves, we must be true to others.
JIMMY CARTER, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1977
We should live our lives as though Christ were coming this afternoon.
JIMMY CARTER, speech, Mar. 1976
We cannot resort to simplistic or extreme solutions which substitute myths for common sense.
JIMMY CARTER, State of the Union Address, Jan. 25, 1979
America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense, it is the other way round. Human rights invented America.
JIMMY CARTER, Farewell Address, Jan. 14, 1981
Because we are free we can never be indifferent to the fate of freedom elsewhere. Our moral sense dictates a clearcut preference for these societies which share with us an abiding respect for individual human rights. We do not seek to intimidate, but it is clear that a world which others can dominate with impunity would be inhospitable to decency and a threat to the well-being of all people.
JIMMY CARTER, Inaugural Address, Jan. 20, 1977
I've looked on many women with lust. I've committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me.
JIMMY CARTER, interview in Playboy magazine, 1976
Christmas has been a season of mixed interests and meanings, but the very foundation, of course, is its religious significance. No matter what other personal desires or crises we have faced, I've never forgotten that this is the time to celebrate the birth of the Baby Jesus, and the impact of this event on the history of the world.
JIMMY CARTER, Christmas in Plains: Memories
It was the darndest thing I've ever seen. It was big, it was very bright, it changed colors, and it was about the size of the moon. We watched it for ten minutes, but none of us could figure out what it was. One thing's for sure, I'll never make fun of people who say they've seen unidentified objects in the sky. If I become President, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and the scientists.
JIMMY CARTER, remark during 1976 Presidential campaign
The love of liberty is a common blood that flows in our American veins.
JIMMY CARTER, Farewell Address, Jan. 14, 1981
In order for us human beings to commit ourselves personally to the inhumanity of war, we find it necessary first to dehumanize our opponents, which is in itself a violation of the beliefs of all religions. Once we characterize our adversaries as beyond the scope of God's mercy and grace, their lives lose all value. We deny personal responsibility when we plant landmines and, days or years later, a stranger to us — often a child – is crippled or killed. From a great distance, we launch bombs or missiles with almost total impunity, and never want to know the number or identity of the victims.
JIMMY CARTER, Nobel Lecture, Dec. 10, 2002
In a nuclear age, each of us is threatened when peace is not secured everywhere.
JIMMY CARTER, State of the Union Address, Jan. 19, 1978
The awareness that health is dependent upon habits that we control makes us the first generation in history that to a large extent determines its own destiny.
JIMMY CARTER, Everything to Gain
Because we are now running out of gas and oil, we must prepare quickly for a third change, to strict conservation and to the use of coal and permanent renewable energy sources, like solar power.
JIMMY CARTER, televised speech, Apr. 18, 1977
The drug culture has shaped at least one major change since the Sixties; It became the basis for overloading our prisons.
JIMMY CARTER, Rolling Stone, May 3, 2007
Thoughtful criticism and close scrutiny of all government officials by the press and the public are an important part of our democratic society.
JIMMY CARTER, Farewell Address, Jan. 14, 1981
If any agreement between two nations is to last, it must serve the best interests of both nations.
JIMMY CARTER, speech, Sep. 7, 1977
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 walls of the church, 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, "Losing My Religion for Equality"
Aggression unopposed becomes a contagious disease.
JIMMY CARTER, speech, Jan. 11, 1980
Whether the borders that divide us are picket fences or national boundaries, we are all neighbors in a global community.
JIMMY CARTER, fundraising letter, Aug. 31, 2007
We have no desire to be the world's policeman. But America does want to be the world's peacemaker.
JIMMY CARTER, State of the Union Address, Jan. 25, 1979
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