Quotes

Dialogue

Richard Nixon: I hate these cocktail parties. John, I'm in hell. I'll be mentally dead in two years and physically dead in four. John Mitchell: Make some money, Dick. Prove yourself to the Wall Street crowd. Let Goldwater and Rockefeller take the fall against Kennedy. Richard Nixon: I don't know why. I miss making love to the people. I miss entering a room. I miss the pure acting of it, John. I gotta get back in the arena.

Dialogue

Richard Nixon: Nobody's gonna beat Kennedy in '64. Not with all the money in the world. Cuban Man: Suppose Kennedy don't run in '64. Richard Nixon: Not a chance.

Dialogue

Richard Nixon: [speaking to a group of young protestors outside the Lincoln Memorial] Well, probably most of you think I'm a real SOB. I know that. I understand how you feel, but you know, I want peace too. But peace with honor. Student #2: What does that mean? Richard Nixon: Well, you can't have peace without a price. Sometimes you have to be willing to fight for peace, and sometimes to die. Student #2: Yeah? Tell that to the GI's who are gonna die tomorrow in Vietnam. Student #1: What you have to understand, Mr. Nixon, is we're willing to die for what we believe in. Richard Nixon: [Turns and points to the statue of Lincoln] Look, that man up there, he lived in similar times. He had chaos and civil war and hatred between the races. Sometimes I go to the Lincoln room at the White House and just pray. But you know, liberals act like idealism belongs to them. That's not true. My family went Republican because Lincoln freed the slaves. My grandmother was an abolitionist, those Quakers who

Dialogue

Pat Nixon: This isn't political, Dick. This is our life. Richard Nixon: Everything's political, for Christ's sake! I'm political! You're political!

Dialogue

Richard Nixon: You see, when I saw Bobby lying there on the floor, arms stretched out, his eyes staring... I knew then I'd be President. His death paved the way, didn't it? Vietnam, the Kennedys, cleared a path through the wilderness just for me. Over the bodies. Four bodies. H. R. Haldeman: You mean two. Two bodies. Richard Nixon: Four. Richard Nixon: How many did you have? Hundreds of thousands? Where would we be without death? Abe? Who's helping us? Is it God or is it death?

Dialogue

H. R. Haldeman: Eight words back in '72. 'I covered up. I was wrong. I'm sorry'. The American public would have forgiven him. But we never opened our mouths, John. We failed him. John Ehrlichman: Dick Nixon apologize? That will be the day. Most of his armor would fall off.

Dialogue

Richard Nixon: [putting his arm around him] John, I want you to get away from this madhouse, these reporters, and go up to Camp David for the weekend. And I want you to write up a report. I want you to put everything you know about Watergate in there. John Dean: You want me to put it all in writing. Over my signature. Richard Nixon: Well, nobody knows more about this thing than you do, John. The details, that stuff, I don't know about. John Dean: Sir, I'm not going to be the scapegoat for this. Haldeman and Ehrlichman are in just as deep as me.