Neverisms

presidency

Never make a speech at a country dance or a football game.LYNDON B. JOHNSON, citing advice from his father

Never miss an opportunity to

say a word of congratulations upon anyone’s achievement,

or express sympathy in sorrow or disappointment.LYNDON B. JOHNSON, one of ten “rules for success” quoted

by David J. Schwartz in The Magic of Thinking Big (1965)

Never forget, rarely forgive.EDWARD KOCH, while serving as New York City mayor

Never stir up litigation.

A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this.ABRAHAM LINCOLN, in “Notes on the Practice of Law” (1850)

Never get into a land war in Asia.GEN. DOUGLAS A. MACARTHUR,

quoted in a 1955 congressional hearing

For a fascinating example of how this saying showed up in the 1987 film The Princess Bride, see the Wallace Shawn entry in the stage & screen chapter.

Never question another man’s motive.

Question his judgment, but never his motive.MIKE MANSFIELD, as quoted by VP-elect Joe Biden

in his 2009 farewell speech to the U.S. Senate

Never say anything in a national campaign that anyone might remember.EUGENE MCCARTHY, often cited as

“McCarthy’s First Law of Politics”

Never underestimate the intimate relationship of politics and language.ROBERT MCCRUM

This was one of “Five Rules for Politicians Who Want to Be Winners” that McCrum laid out in a 2007 article in The Observer. In discussing the fall of Richard Nixon, he wrote:What really cooked Nixon’s goose with the American voters was the blizzard of “expletive deleted” in the published transcript of Oval Office conversations. High crimes and misdemeanors were one thing. Presidential profanity was something else.

Never forget posterity when devising a policy.

Never think of posterity when making a speech.ROBERT G. MENZIES, former prime minister of Australia

Never take an elevator when you’re in City Hall.HARVEY MILK, quoted by Randy Shilts in The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (1978)

When Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, he became the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. In this observation—which was all about making a dramatic entrance—he was referring to the elegant marble staircase that flows into the lobby of San Francisco’s City Hall. He continued: “Always take that stairway. You can make such an entrance with it.” And then, just to make sure his point was made, he concluded: “You can make such an entrance—take it slowly.”

Never speak of yourself in the third person.THOMAS P. “TIP” O’NEILL JR.

This appeared in O’Neill’s 1993 book All Politics Is Local: And Other Rules of the Game (written with Gary Hymel). The book also contained these admonitions:

Never forget your spouse.

Never forget whence you came.

Never attack an opponent’s family.

Never get introduced to the crowd at sports events.

Never question the honesty or integrity of a colleague.

Never say something you don’t want to see on the front page of the local paper.

Never lose your temper, even when met with insults.CHRISTABEL PANKHURST

Pankhurst made this remark about the women’s suffrage movement in a 1912 article in The Century magazine. She preceded it by writing, “Self-restraint has always been one of our first rules.” The English suffragist returned to the theme in her 1959 memoir Unshackled: How We Won the Vote, where she wrote: “Never lose your temper with the Press or the public is a major rule of political life.”

Never wear a ring on your right hand in a receiving line.

It’s always a little old lady who will squeeze so hard

she’ll bring you to your knees.NANCY REAGAN, quoted in Newsweek in 1987

Never forget that the most powerful force on earth is love.NELSON ROCKEFELLER, a favorite observation

This is how the quotation almost always appears, but in a eulogy at Rockefeller’s 1979 memorial service, Henry Kissinger recalled a slightly different phrasing:In recent years, he and I would often sit on the veranda overlooking his beloved Hudson River in the setting sun. . . . And, as the statues on the lawn glowed in the dimming light, Nelson Rockefeller would occasionally get that squint in his eyes, which betokened a far horizon. And he would say, because I needed it, but, above all, because he deeply felt it: “Never forget that the most profound force in the world is love.”

Never blame a legislative body for not doing something.

When they do nothing, they don’t hurt anybody.

When they do something is when they become dangerous.WILL ROGERS, in a 1920s syndicated column

Rogers is best remembered as a star of stage and film, but he was also an influential newspaper columnist. In a weekly New York Times column that was syndicated to over 500 newspapers, he wrote more than 2,500 columns between 1922 and 1935.

Never hit if you can help it, but when you have to, hit hard.

Never hit soft.

You’ll never get any thanks for hitting soft.THEODORE ROOSEVELT, in a 1912 diary entry

Roosevelt described this as “My cardinal principle” and returned to the theme again and again in his letters, conversations, and speeches. It also echoes the sentiment behind the quotation most often associated with Roosevelt: “Speak softly, but carry a big stick.”

Never go after someone’s strength;

go after what he thinks is his