… in his inaugural address as Governor of Georgia:
"I say to you quite frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over. The test of a government is not how popular it is with the powerful and privileged few, but how honestly and fairly it deals with the many who must depend upon it."
… in a New York Times op-ed in January 2022:
"Our great nation now teeters on the brink of a widening abyss. Without immediate action, we are at genuine risk of civil conflict and losing our precious democracy. Americans must set aside differences and work together before it is too late."
… after the January 6 insurrection:
"This is a national tragedy and is not who we are as a nation. Having observed elections in troubled democracies worldwide, I know that we the people can unite to walk back from this precipice to peacefully uphold the laws of our nation, and we must. We join our fellow citizens in praying for a peaceful resolution so our nation can heal and complete the transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries."
… about his wife, Rosalynn:
"I've never won an argument with her; and the only times I thought I had I found out the argument wasn't over yet."
… what he and Rosalynn said to each other every day of their 77-year marriage:
"I love you the goodest."
… on Jesus and gay people:
"I'm a worshipper of Jesus Christ, who never mentioned homosexuals in any way — certainly not in a deleterious fashion. And when it has been mentioned in the New Testament, it's been combined with things like selfishness or something like that. So I've never looked upon it as any sort of reason to condemn a person. I think it's an inherent characteristic just like other things that we do with our lives. I believe Jesus would approve gay marriage, but that's just my own personal belief. I think Jesus would encourage any love affair if it was honest and sincere and was not damaging to anyone else, and I don't see that gay marriage damages anyone else."
… in his Presidential Farewell Address, January 1981:
"But we know that democracy is always an unfinished creation. Each generation must renew its foundations. Each generation must rediscover the meaning of this hallowed vision in the light of its own modern challenges. For this generation, ours, life is nuclear survival; liberty is human rights; the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose resources are devoted to the physical and spiritual nourishment of its inhabitants."
… about then-Senator Barack Obama's candidacy for president:
" I think that this breakthrough by Barack Obama has been remarkable. When he made his speech (on race) a few months ago in Philadelphia, I wept. I sat in front of the television and cried, because I saw that as the most enlightening and transforming analysis of racism and a potential end of it that I ever saw in my life."
… on how he wants to be remembered:
"I'd like to be remembered as a champion of peace and human rights. Those are the two things I've found as a kind of guide for my life. I've done the best I could with those, not always successful, of course. I would hope the American people would see that I tried to do what was best for our country every day I was in office."
… on his life:
"I've had a wonderful life, I've had thousands of friends, and I've had an exciting and adventurous and gratifying existence."
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