Practically every president has written a book; some have even written those books all by themselves. The general consensus is that the honor of greatest writer among the presidents falls to Abraham Lincoln—with Ulysses S. Grant a distant second—but all who’ve allegedly put pen to paper have words of advice for the rest of us.
THE FIRST WORD
“Heroes have made poets, and poets heroes.”
–George Washington
“Writing, the art of communicating thoughts through the mind to the eye, is the great invention of the world … enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and space.”
–Abraham Lincoln
ON COURAGE
“Never regret what you don’t write.”
–Abraham Lincoln
“Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.”
–John Adams
“Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors.”
–John F. Kennedy
ON BOOKS
“I cannot live without books.”
–Thomas Jefferson
“You will never be alone with a poet in your pocket.”
–John Adams
“The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.”
–Abraham Lincoln
“When I wasn’t working, the weekends would usually find me alone in an empty apartment, making do with the company of books.”
–Barack Obama
ON EDITING
“The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
–Thomas Jefferson
ON SPELLING
“Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary.”
–Thomas Jefferson
ON STYLE
“I only knew what was in my mind, and I wished to express it clearly.”
–Ulysses S. Grant
“No style of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one.”
–Thomas Jefferson
“Don’t write so that you can be understood; write so that you can’t be misunderstood.”
–William Howard Taft
“It may be different elsewhere. But democratic society – in it, the highest duty of the writer, the composer, the artist is to remain true to himself and to let the chips fall where they may.”
–John F. Kennedy
ON EFFORT
“Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any other.”
–Abraham Lincoln
“Remember always that the man who does a thing so that it is worth doing is always a man who does his work for the work’s sake […] A scientific man, a writer, a historian, an artist, can only be a good man of science, a first-class artist, a first-class writer, if he does his work for the sake of doing it well.”
–Teddy Roosevelt
“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”
–Franklin D. Roosevelt
ON CRITICS
“…my later experience has taught me two lessons: first, that things are seen plainer after the events have occurred; second, that the most confident critics are generally those who know the least about the matter criticized.”
–Ulysses S. Grant
“Art is parasitic on life, just as criticism is parasitic on art.”
–Harry S. Truman
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
–Teddy Roosevelt
ON TRUTH
“We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.”
–John F. Kennedy
“…the most important stuff I’ve learned I think I’ve learned from novels. It has to do with empathy. It has to do with being comfortable with the notion that the world is complicated and full of grays, but there’s still truth there to be found, and that you have to strive for that and work for that. And the notion that it’s possible to connect with some[one] else even though they’re very different from you.”
–Barack Obama
ON STORYTELLING
“I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can’t be judged by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgments can make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only response to pain…. Perhaps most important, I learned that everyone has a story – of dreams and nightmares, hope and heartache, love and loss, courage and fear, sacrifice and selfishness. All my life I’ve been interested in other people’s stories.”
–Bill Clinton
ON PROCESS
“When you’re writing about something that happened, it helps you transition to the present. Ironically enough, by focusing on your presidency, it helps you realize that you’re no longer the president. By reliving moments, it helps you stay focused on the moment.”
–George W. Bush
“I am somebody who usually writes out the rough draft in longhand. Then I type it into the computer, and that is where I do my editing. I find that if I write it on the computer, I go too quick. So I like getting that first draft out and then typing it in; you are less self-conscious about it.”
–Barack Obama
THE LAST WORD
“I have written a book. This will come as quite a shock to some. They didn’t think I could read, much less write.”
–George W. Bush
“Write anything you want because we’ll never be heard from again.”
–Barack Obama
This post was originally shared at Career Authors.