Bush said....

There has never been an American president who was such a master of
the English language and general knowledge as George W. Bush. In this
context, consider the following pearls of wisdom that have been
uttered by Bush in the seven-and-a-half years that he's been in
office.

"I think war is a dangerous place,"

But does this place called war feature in any atlas? Maybe the White
House has had an atlas printed specially for him – one that says on
various pages: "Here be war", rather like those atlases printed in the
Middle Ages which contained maps marked with statements like: "Here be
dragons."

"One of the great things about books is sometimes there are some
fantastic pictures,"

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literary test,"

"If you don't stand for anything, you don't stand for anything."

"It is clear our nation is reliant on big foreign oil. More and more
of our imports come from overseas,"

"There is no such thing as legacies. At least, there is a legacy, but
I'll never see it,"

"Redefining the role of the United States from enablers to keep the
peace to enablers to keep the peace from peacekeepers is going to be
an assignment."

"We cannot let terrorists and rogue nations hold this nation hostile
or hold our allies hostile,"

"I thing anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job
is underestimating,"

"If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow,"

"When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly
who they were. It was us versus them, and it was clear who them was.
Today, we are not so sure who the they are, but we know they're
there."

"One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations rise
above that which is expected."

"There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds
on the horizon were getting nearly directly overhead."

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

"First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been
ratified, nor a treaty that I thought made sense for the country."

Referring to the electricity crisis in California a few years ago,
Bush said, "The California crunch really is the result of not enough
power generating plants and then not enough power to power the power
of generating plants."

"I'm hopeful. I know there is a lot of ambition in Washington,
obviously. But I hope the ambitious realise that they are more likely
to succeed with success as opposed to failure."

"This administration is doing everything to end the stalemate in an
efficient way. We're making the right decision to bring the solution
to an end."

"But I also made it clear (to Vladimir Putin) that it's important to
think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew
each other up, the world would be safe."

"I have made good judgments in the past. I have made good judgments in
the future,"

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO." So far so
good, but then came the truly astonishing statement: "We have a firm
commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe." In this formulation,
Bush had somehow managed to shift the United States 3,000 miles
eastward across the Atlantic Ocean and join it to Europe.

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the
impurities in our air and water that are doing it,"

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit Mars is somewhat the same
distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures
where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that
means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean
in this century's history. But we all lived in this century (the
twentieth century). I didn't live in this century,"

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and
democracy – but that could change,"

"The future will be better tomorrow," said Bush. For good measure, he
added, "I stand by all my misstatements."