Whereas it’s no secret that Jimmy Carter is among the many most missed and dismissed U.S. presidents of the fashionable period — and but — he’s additionally one of many extra exceptional and impactful leaders of the final 50 years of American historical past.
Carter’s time within the White Home was short-lived and shrouded in high-profile crises; his poor showmanship and communication expertise left him with poor media protection and sub-par approval rankings. All of this largely overshadowed Carter’s presidential influence as an early adopter of local weather motion and his profound concentrate on human rights in overseas coverage.
His post-presidency is the place Carter lastly earned well-deserved public reward. After dropping his re-election marketing campaign, Carter graciously accepted defeat and returned to his humble life in Georgia. He rapidly set to work establishing The Carter Middle, a nonprofit group with the mission to wage peace, struggle illness, and construct hope.
By and huge, the group has succeeded in that mission.
Carter and the Middle dedicated to stopping and eradicating illnesses all through the worldwide south, served as leaders within the development of human rights, and performed a big position within the influence of Habitat for Humanity.
Underneath his watch, Guinea worm illness has dropped from 3.5 million annual instances to solely 15 complete instances in 2021 —and we’ve seen important progress within the struggle in opposition to different probably eradicable illnesses. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002.
On February 18, 2023, the Carter Middle launched an announcement saying that Carter, 98, made the choice to spend his “remaining time at house together with his household and obtain hospice care as an alternative of further medical intervention.”
Carter’s lengthy lifetime of service, speeches, and writing have resulted in numerous inspiring quotes about what it means to reside a lifetime of service and hopefulness and the position every of us can play in making our world a greater place.
We’ve collected Jimmy Carter’s most well-known quotes — in addition to a few of his most inspiring lesser-known quotes:
The Greatest Quotes From Jimmy Carter —
Well-known Quotes
“To be true to ourselves, we should be true to others.”
— Jimmy Carter, in his Inaugural Deal with
“The bond of our frequent humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.”
— Jimmy Carter
“I’ve one life and one likelihood to make it rely for one thing… My religion calls for that I do no matter I can, wherever I’m, each time I can, for so long as I can with no matter I’ve to attempt to make a distinction.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Like music and artwork, love of nature is a typical language that may transcend political or social boundaries.”
— Jimmy Carter
“America didn’t invent human rights. In a really actual sense… human rights invented America.”
— Jimmy Carter, in his Farewell Deal with
“We’ve got change into not a melting pot however an exquisite mosaic. Completely different folks, completely different beliefs, completely different yearnings, completely different hopes, completely different desires.”
— Jimmy Carter
“You are able to do what you need to do, and typically you are able to do it even higher than you suppose you’ll be able to.”
— Jimmy Carter
“My place has at all times been, together with many different folks, that any variations be resolved in a nonviolent method.”
— Jimmy Carter
“We’ve got to encourage our kids and grandchildren to tackle challenges and dangers that at the beginning might appear to be overwhelming, and even unattainable. They should perceive that the one failure shouldn’t be making an attempt.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a speech on the 2016 assembly of the Coalition for Operational Analysis on Uncared for Tropical Illnesses
On Life
“After I replicate upon my blessings throughout my very good lifetime, I’m impressed to guarantee that I spend the stability of the times of my existence in a productive method.”
— Jimmy Carter
“I consider that anybody could be profitable in life, no matter pure expertise or the surroundings inside which we reside. This isn’t primarily based on measuring success by human competitiveness for wealth, possessions, affect, and fame, however adhering to God’s requirements of fact, justice, humility, service, compassion, forgiveness, and love.”
— Jimmy Carter, Our Endangered Values: America’s Ethical Disaster
“Typically we face potential failure, and we’ve to recollect to strive anyway to discover a strategy to attain our objective. We will overcome many world issues and construct a greater world if all of us work collectively as a group”
— Jimmy Carter, in a speech on the 2016 assembly of the Coalition for Operational Analysis on Uncared for Tropical Illnesses
“Earlier in my life, I assumed the issues that mattered have been the issues that you possibly can see, like your automotive, your own home, your wealth, your property, your workplace. However as I’ve grown older I’ve change into satisfied that the issues that matter most are the issues which you could’t see — the love you share with others, your interior goal, your consolation with who you might be.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Failure is a actuality; all of us fail at instances, and it is painful after we do. Nevertheless it’s higher to fail whereas striving for one thing great, difficult, adventurous, and unsure than to say, ‘I do not wish to strive as a result of I’ll not succeed fully.’”
― Jimmy Carter, Sources of Power: Meditations on Scripture for a Dwelling Religion
“Everyone knows grandparents whose values transcend passing fads and pressures, and who possess the knowledge of distilled ache and pleasure.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Wherever life takes us, there are at all times moments of marvel.”
— Jimmy Carter
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→ Learn extra optimistic quotes about life and quotes about self care
On Peace
“It’s clear that world challenges should be met with an emphasis on peace, in concord with others, with robust alliances and worldwide consensus.”
— Jimmy Carter, The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
“As a result of we’re free we will by no means be detached to the destiny of freedom elsewhere. Our ethical sense dictates a clearcut desire for these societies which share with us an abiding respect for particular person human rights. We don’t search to intimidate, however it’s clear {that a} world which others can dominate with impunity could be inhospitable to decency and a menace to the well-being of all folks.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Except each side win, no settlement could be everlasting.”
— Jimmy Carter
“It’s good to appreciate that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we will educate our kids to honor nature’s presents, the fun and beauties of the outside might be right here eternally.”
— Jimmy Carter
“It’s clear that we should embrace human rights and aggressively problem our society’s acceptance of violence, which ought to by no means be seen as regular or as the popular technique of fixing issues.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a 2016 speech on the Middle’s annual Human Rights Defenders Discussion board
“Allow us to be taught collectively and chuckle collectively and work collectively and pray collectively, assured that in the long run we’ll triumph collectively in the best.”
— Jimmy Carter, in his Inaugural Deal with
“We all know {that a} peaceable world can not lengthy exist, one-third wealthy and two-thirds hungry.”
— Jimmy Carter
“I believe the fundamental elevation of peace and human rights to the highest of our precedence checklist will submerge struggle and animosity and hatred and persecution to a really low stage.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an interview for The Elders
“The bond of our frequent humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices. God provides us the capability for alternative. We will select to work collectively for peace. We will select to alleviate struggling. We will make these modifications and we should keep in mind, that there are lots of methods to perform our objectives, collectively.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a speech on the 2016 assembly of the Coalition for Operational Analysis on Uncared for Tropical Illnesses
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On Religion
“As we ask God for some blessing, we’ve an obligation to take part ourselves within the success of these desires, aspirations, hopes, and concepts.”
― Jimmy Carter, By means of the 12 months with Jimmy Carter: 366 Day by day Meditations from the thirty ninth President
“You solely must have two loves in your life: for God, and for the individual in entrance of you at any specific time.”
― Jimmy Carter
“We must always reside our lives as if Christ have been coming this afternoon.”
― Jimmy Carter
“In recent times, I’ve spoken out the very best I might in regards to the abuse of spiritual scriptures to advertise varied types of violence, together with the dying penalty, discrimination and abuse of ladies, and unjust resort to warfare. These are direct violations of my very own religion and different nice religions, that are based on love, kindness to strangers, not judging others, justice, and resolving disputes within the least violent method.”
― Jimmy Carter, in a 2016 speech on the Middle’s annual Human Rights Defenders Discussion board
“I’m not in favor of the federal government mandating a prayer at school as a result of our nation was based on the truth that no specific non secular religion would have ascendance over or preferential remedy over another.”
― Jimmy Carter
“When our moms, wives, sisters, and daughters are thought-about each completely different and inferior within the eyes of the God we worship, this perception tends to permeate society and everybody suffers.”
— Jimmy Carter, A Name to Motion: Ladies, Faith, Violence, and Energy
“We generally tend to sentence people who find themselves completely different from us, to outline their sins as paramount and our personal sinfulness as being insignificant.”
― Jimmy Carter
“We typically fail to appreciate is that each one the foremost religions have the identical fundamental rules. Everybody professes to consider in peace, professes to consider in hospitality, professes to consider in caring for these in want, professes to be beneficiant with our time and with our cash to others who’re in determined states.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an interview for The Elders
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On Service
“We will select to alleviate struggling. We will select to work collectively for peace. We will make these modifications — and we should. ”
— Jimmy Carter
“In our democracy, the one title larger and extra highly effective than that of president is the title of citizen. It’s each citizen’s proper and responsibility to assist form the long run legacy of our nation.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an op-ed within the Wall Road Journal
“On this nice nation of ours, it’s inexcusable that so many youngsters develop up in poverty and despair. The well-being of our kids should be the nationwide precedence and the duty of each particular person.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Every of us residents, particularly in a democracy, should study ourselves — individually and as a nation — to see how we will enhance. We do that not with condemnation, however constructively.”
— Jimmy Carter
“[The next] era, together with my grandchildren, can take part making our nice nation a superpower in all meanings of the phrase: an exalted instance of being a champion of peace, justice, democracy, human rights, environmental high quality, and generosity to these in want. That is America’s future, which you should assist to form.”
— Jimmy Carter
![“[The next] generation, including my grandchildren, can join in making our great country a superpower in all meanings of the word: an exalted example of being a champion of peace, justice, democracy, human rights, environmental quality, and generosity to those in need. This is America's destiny, which you must help to shape.” — Jimmy Carter](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5f6cc9cd16d59d990c8fca33/66fbf89e0f8a5e1b6829ba1b_6331f1f8b264f50d9e09468a_jimmy-carter-quotes-service-3.jpeg)
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On the US
“Democracy is a framework that allows a folks to accommodate altering instances and proper previous errors. Since our independence, the US has rid itself of slavery, granted ladies the best to vote, ended nearly a century of authorized racial discrimination, and [reformed election laws].”
— Jimmy Carter, in a speech from Cuba
![“Democracy is a framework that permits a people to accommodate changing times and correct past mistakes. Since our independence, the United States has rid itself of slavery, granted women the right to vote, ended almost a century of legal racial discrimination, and [reformed election laws].” — Jimmy Carter, in a speech from Cuba](https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/5f6cc9cd16d59d990c8fca33/66fbf89e0f8a5e1b6829ba24_6331f45e91e01cf2a7ac06f6_jimmy-carter-quotes-united-states-1.jpeg)
“We should resist the polarization that’s reshaping our identities round politics. We should concentrate on a couple of core truths: that we’re all human, we’re all Individuals and we’ve frequent hopes for our communities and our nation to thrive.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an op-ed within the New York Occasions
“My nation is hardly excellent in human rights. A really giant variety of our residents are incarcerated in jail, and there’s little doubt that the dying penalty is imposed most harshly on those that are poor, black, or mentally in poor health. For greater than 1 / 4 century, we’ve struggled unsuccessfully to ensure the fundamental proper of common well being take care of our folks. Nonetheless, assured civil liberties provide each citizen a possibility to alter these legal guidelines.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a speech from Cuba
“For American democracy to endure, we should demand that our leaders and candidates uphold the beliefs of freedom and cling to excessive requirements of conduct.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an op-ed within the New York Occasions
“Whereas residents can disagree on insurance policies, folks of all political stripes should agree on elementary constitutional rules and norms of equity, civility, and respect for the rule of legislation. Residents ought to be capable of take part simply in clear, protected, and safe electoral processes. Claims of election irregularities needs to be submitted in good religion for adjudication by the courts, with all contributors agreeing to just accept the findings. And the election course of needs to be carried out peacefully, freed from intimidation and violence.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an op-ed within the New York Occasions
“Ours was the primary nation to be based on the concept all are created equal and all deserve equal remedy beneath the legislation. Regardless of our missteps and shortcomings, these beliefs nonetheless encourage hope among the many oppressed and provides us satisfaction in being Individuals.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an op-ed within the Wall Road Journal
“My prayer is that we additionally, the US, change into the undisputed champion of peace. Wouldn’t it’s good if each nation on earth, once they have a menace of warfare, would say, ‘Why don’t we go to Washington, as a result of the American persons are devoted to peace?’
“I pray additionally that we change into the undisputed champion of human rights. We must always restore the United Nations to its unique goal and dedication. Our hallmark needs to be a peaceable diplomacy.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a 2016 speech on the Middle’s annual Human Rights Defenders Discussion board
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On Serving as President
“Considerate criticism and shut scrutiny of all authorities officers by the press and the general public are an vital a part of our democratic society.”
— Jimmy Carter, in his Farewell Deal with
“The life of each human being on earth can rely on the expertise, judgment, and vigilance of the individual within the Oval Workplace.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Human rights is the soul of our overseas coverage as a result of human rights are the very soul of our sense of nationhood.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Everybody who has run is aware of that its most vital worth is in eradicating stress and permitting a launch from no matter different cares the day might carry.”
— Jimmy Carter
On Struggle & Battle
“Struggle might typically be a obligatory evil. However regardless of how obligatory, it’s at all times an evil, by no means a great. We is not going to be taught to reside collectively in peace by killing one another’s youngsters.”
— Jimmy Carter, The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
“We can’t be each the world’s main champion of peace and the world’s main provider of the weapons of struggle.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Struggle and good well being are incompatible. There’s no method we will go [eradicate diseases] in an space that’s at struggle.”
— Jimmy Carter
“So I believe that we have to be extra reluctant to go to struggle, and to go there solely in determined circumstances when all avenues in direction of peace are exhausted, together with good-faith discussions, both straight with our potential adversaries or by way of a trusted middleman.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an interview for The Elders
On Management
“What is required now, greater than ever, is management that steers us away from concern and fosters larger confidence within the inherent goodness and ingenuity of humanity.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a 2016 speech on the Middle’s annual Human Rights Defenders Discussion board
“A powerful nation, like a powerful individual, can afford to be mild, agency, considerate, and restrained.”
— Jimmy Carter
“We should alter to altering instances and nonetheless maintain to unchanging rules.”
— Jimmy Carter
“We’ve got realized that ‘extra’ shouldn’t be essentially ‘higher,’ that even our nice nation has its acknowledged limits, and that we will neither reply all questions nor remedy all issues… we should merely do our greatest.”
— Jimmy Carter
On Immigration
“We’ve got change into not a melting pot however an exquisite mosaic. Completely different folks, completely different beliefs, completely different yearnings, completely different hopes, completely different desires.”
— Jimmy Carter
“After 43 years of animosity, we hope that sometime quickly, [Cuba] can attain throughout the nice divide that separates our two nations and say, ‘We’re prepared to affix the group of democracies,’ and I hope that Individuals will quickly open our arms to you and say, ‘We welcome you as our pals.’”
— Jimmy Carter, in a speech from Cuba
“We want a good and accountable nationwide coverage that enforces legal guidelines and protects the human rights of these on our nation who are usually not but residents.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Our nation has lengthy been a beacon of hope for these fleeing violence or persecution. [Rosalynn and I] urge Individuals to open their hearts to those refugees and help them as they work to construct new lives right here amongst us. We stand with the folks of Ukraine of their brave struggle for democracy and freedom.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Individuals know the guts of the stranger. The colonies that turned the US have been based by refugees from non secular persecution, and our non secular traditions name on us to welcome the stranger.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an announcement commemorating the anniversary of the Refugee Act of 1980
On Well being
“We’ve got an ethical obligation to stop struggling wherever we will.”
— Jimmy Carter
“I’m cheered by the information that there are moms in Colombia and Ecuador and Mexico and Guatemala that by no means have to fret once more about their households going blind from river blindness. I’ve to keep in mind that there are ladies in Ethiopia who won’t ever undergo from the ravages of blinding trachoma. There are thousands and thousands of individuals in Plateau and Nasarawa States in Nigeria now not uncovered to lymphatic filariasis. And I’ve to keep in mind that there’ll quickly be no Guinea worm wherever on the planet. I consider these realities and I’m energized once more.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a speech on the 2016 assembly of the Coalition for Operational Analysis on Uncared for Tropical Illnesses
“The attention that well being depends upon habits that we management makes us the primary era in historical past that to a big extent determines its personal future.”
— Jimmy Carter
“I believe all Individuals consider in human rights. And well being is an usually missed side of fundamental human rights. And it is one which’s simply corrected. The explanation I say that’s that lots of the illnesses that we deal with world wide, I knew once I was a baby. My mom was a registered nurse. And so they now not exist in our nation.”
— Jimmy Carter
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On the Rights of Ladies & Women
“I can let you know with none equivocation that the primary abuse of human rights on Earth is the abuse of ladies and women.”
— Jimmy Carter, in his TEDWomen speak
“Ladies are key brokers of the modifications we’d like. Ladies are excluded from management in faith, in household and group decision-making, and in legislatures and different political workplaces. When half of the world’s inhabitants shouldn’t be consulted on vital choices and insurance policies, it’s no marvel that so many issues persist.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a 2016 speech on the Middle’s annual Human Rights Defenders Discussion board
“When ladies are empowered in important numbers, within the company world in addition to in politics and in day by day life, higher choices are made and extra sustainable options are adopted.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a 2016 speech on the Middle’s annual Human Rights Defenders Discussion board
“I’ve change into satisfied that probably the most severe and unaddressed worldwide problem is the deprivation and abuse of ladies and women, largely brought on by a false interpretation of rigorously chosen non secular texts and a rising tolerance of violence and warfare.”
— Jimmy Carter, A Name to Motion: Ladies, Faith, Violence, and Energy
“One of the best factor that we might do as we speak is for the ladies within the highly effective nations like this one, and the place you come from, Europe and so forth, who’ve affect and who’ve freedom to talk and to behave, to take the duty on yourselves to be extra forceful in demanding an finish to racial discrimination in opposition to women and girls everywhere in the world.”
— Jimmy Carter, in his TEDWomen speak
“I hope that each one of you’ll be part of me in being a champion for ladies and women world wide and defend their human rights.”
— Jimmy Carter, in his TEDWomen speak
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On Race & Range
“The check of a authorities shouldn’t be how fashionable it’s with the highly effective and privileged few however how actually and pretty it offers with the numerous who should rely on it.”
— Jimmy Carter
“We’re in fact a nation of variations. These variations do not make us weak. They’re the supply of our energy.”
— Jimmy Carter
“No poor, rural, weak, or black individual ought to ever once more must bear the extra burden of being disadvantaged of the chance for an schooling, a job, or easy justice.”
— Jimmy Carter
“I say to you fairly frankly that the time for racial discrimination is over.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Individuals of energy, privilege, and ethical conscience should arise and say ‘no extra’ to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral financial disparities between whites and blacks, and authorities actions that undermine our unified democracy. We’re accountable for making a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.”
— Jimmy Carter
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Extra Inspiring Jimmy Carter Quotes
“Great progress could be made if we persevere by way of troublesome challenges.”
— Jimmy Carter
“When persons are intimidated about having their very own opinions, oppression is at hand.”
— Jimmy Carter
“In the event you concern making anybody mad, then you definitely in the end probe for the bottom frequent denominator of human achievement.”
— Jimmy Carter
“In each occasion that I’ve identified of with confrontation with the federal government and the press, the press was at all times proper. So stick with it.”
— Jimmy Carter
“Bear in mind these phrases: ‘We maintain these truths to be self-evident, that each one males are created equal; that they’re endowed by their creator with sure inalienable rights; that amongst these are life liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’
This imaginative and prescient nonetheless grips the creativeness of the world. However we all know that democracy is at all times an unfinished creation. Every era should renew its foundations. Every era should rediscover the which means of this hallowed imaginative and prescient within the gentle of its personal fashionable challenges. For this era, ours, life is nuclear survival; liberty is human rights; the pursuit of happiness is a planet whose assets are dedicated to the bodily and religious nourishment of its inhabitants.”
— Jimmy Carter
“The extra involvement that folks have in selecting their very own leaders and shaping their very own future, the higher off they’re.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an interview for The Elders
“To discover ways to use new expertise is excellent, as a result of it provides folks entry to one another’s ideas and beliefs and it breaks down nationwide limitations, non secular limitations, and generic values.”
— Jimmy Carter, in an interview for The Elders
“I’ve realized that people who find themselves desperately poor have the identical hopes, the identical work ethic, and the identical desires, as you and I. They’re simply as devoted and simply as clever. Once they obtain the best instruments and coaching, they are going to implement the options themselves, change into empowered, and be prepared to handle different challenges. They wish to enhance their very own lives, they usually simply want some assist.”
— Jimmy Carter, in a speech on the 2016 assembly of the Coalition for Operational Analysis on Uncared for Tropical Illnesses
“However I owe my deepest due to you, the American folks, since you gave me this extraordinary alternative to serve. We’ve got confronted nice challenges collectively. We all know that future issues may even be troublesome, however I’m now extra satisfied than ever that the US — higher than another nation — can meet efficiently regardless of the future would possibly carry.”
— Jimmy Carter
