44 Quotes by James K. Polk

No union exists between church and state, and perfect freedom of opinion is guaranteed to all sects and creeds.

I love you Sarah. For all eternity, I love you.

General Taylor is, I have no doubt, a well-meaning old man. He is, however, uneducated, exceedingly ignorant of public affairs, and I should judge, of very ordinary capacity.

The Constitution itself, plainly written as it is, the safeguard of our federative compact, the offspring of concession and compromise, binding together in the bonds of peace and union this great and increasing family of free and independent States, will be the chart by which I shall be directed.

When I observed a strong man approaching I generally took advantage of him by being a little quicker than he was and seizing him by the tip of the fingers, giving him a hearty shake, and thus preventing him from getting a full grip upon me.

Public opinion: May it always perform one of its appropriate offices, by teaching the public functionaries of the State and of the Federal Government, that neither shall assume the exercise of powers entrusted by the Constitution to the other.

I cannot, whilst President of the United States, descend to enter into a newspaper controversy.

There are four great measures for my administration - a reduction of tariff, an independent treasury, settlement of the Oregon boundary and acquisition of California.

We must ever mandate the principle that the people of this continent alone have the right to decide their own destiny.