Top 40 famous quotes by John Edgar Hoover

This former FBI director went from being a humble citizen to representing this state institution.

John Edgar Hoover, who was born in Washington D.C. in 1895, was the first man to hold the position of director of the FBI.was the first man to hold the position of director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more commonly known by its acronym FBI.

At the helm of the FBI this man managed to get his hands on a remarkable amount of information, information that according to some people this man would later use for his own benefit. The only thing we can be sure of is that information, as we all know, is power and whoever has a large amount of information will undoubtedly be someone very powerful in our society.

Quotes and reflections of John Edgar Hoover, former director of the FBI

Below you can enjoy the 40 best quotes by John Edgar Hoover.a man of humble origins who, through his work, managed to become one of the most powerful people in the United States.

1. The cure for crime is not the electric chair, but the high chair.

The education of our children is the best weapon we have to fight crime efficiently.

2. It is the function of mass agitation to exploit all the grievances, hopes, aspirations, prejudices, fears and ideals of all the special groups that make up our society, social, religious, economic, racial, political. Stir them up. Set one against the other. Divide and conquer. That's the way to smooth out a democracy.

If we are united, we human beings are much more powerful, so the government usually pits us against each other, in order to control us more easily.

3. Dictatorship is power based directly on force and unrestricted by any law.

Dictatorships must never have a place in today's world. Democracy and human rights are the pillars on which our society will undoubtedly flourish in the future.

4. I regret to say that we of the FBI are unable to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy unless it has somehow obstructed interstate commerce.

Some states have truly implausible laws, many of which have now been thrown out.

5. No amount of law enforcement can solve a problem that goes back to the family.

The law can punish a single person, but not society as a whole. Moral problems are so complicated that they cannot be settled in the courts.

6. Above all, I would teach him to tell the truth. The truth is that telling the truth is the key to responsible citizenship. The thousands of criminals I have seen in 40 years of law enforcement have had one thing in common: they were all liars.

By being honest we are sure to get further in our lives, for honesty is an absolutely essential quality for personal success.

7. Banks are an almost irresistible attraction for that element of our society that seeks unearned money.

Free money does not exist, either with our work or with possible returns we will always end up having to pay for every dollar we have.

8. The moment the FBI starts making recommendations on what to do with your information, it becomes a Gestapo.

The FBI was to avoid becoming the secret police of the United States, this police force aimed to be much more transparent than some of its European counterparts.

9. There is no doubt that the United States is now the main target of international communism.

The United States was certainly the number one enemy of the Stalinist nations, but try as they might, they never succeeded in subduing the American giant.

10. Law and order is what covers the whole picture. Justice is part of this, but it cannot be separated as a single thing.

Justice could not be understood without laws, for laws are the basis on which we apply what we all commonly know as justice.

11. Experts say that children are not born criminals, nor are they spoiled parasites. The environment in which they live creates them that way.

Those values that we receive during our childhood mark us for life, there are no bad children but bad parents.

12. What you need is a good vacuum cleaner.

Today's domestic technology has made our lives much easier, a revolution of our comforts that has been brewing in the United States for more than 60 years.

13. We (the FBI) are a data collection organization only. We do not clear anyone. We do not convict anyone.

The FBI is simply an intelligence agency, as such its only duties are investigation and data collection.

14. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was asked to assist in the investigation of flying disc sightings.

As we can see the FBI began to investigate the UFO subject, some of these documents have already been declassified today.

15. What we need in America today is a vigorous return to the god of our fathers.

Hoover was convinced that Christianity could inspire many people in the United States. This religion was seen by him as a key that could open the door to a much more prosperous future.

16. I would (study UFOs), but before agreeing to do so, we must insist on full access to the recovered records. For example, in the Los Angeles case, the Army grabbed it and would not allow us to have it for cursory examination.

A very curious quote in which Hoover pronounces himself on the UFO conspiracy, a very hot and interesting topic for the society of the 50's and 60's.

17. Why should you care if you have nothing to hide?

Only those who have committed a crime should be afraid of the police, if we have nothing to hide the police will never be our enemy.

18. It can be assured that the information that is withheld or suppressed contains truths that are damaging to the people involved in the repression.

How information is handled in a given event, can mean that public opinion has a totally distorted idea about it. A way of acting that Hoover used on numerous occasions.

19. All persons who bear the title of blessed parent have a personal responsibility to see that their children grow up fully appreciating the rights of God and their fellow man.

Being a father is a great responsibility, a position that no man should ever take lightly.

20. I need not tell you that it is often what is unseen that determines a man's legacy.

We all have some secret that we jealously guard just for ourselves, in some cases these secrets could ruin more than one person's life.

21. The flames of liberty that were kindled in this great land of ours in the days of Thomas Jefferson have continued to burn with an intense and magnetic light for nearly 200 years. They have been fueled by the spiritual fuel that abounds only in a land where an abiding faith in God and the recognition of Him as the true Author of Liberty prevails.

As we see Hoover had great faith in God, the Lord apparently occupied his first and last thought every day.

22. If the facts are present, it helps the success of the proposal, but the Bureau believes... that disruption can be achieved without facts to back it up.

The FBI was not afraid to act, this police force would do everything in its power to make the United States a much safer nation.

23. Justice is incidental to law and order.

Law and order make possible a tranquil life in society; no nation could develop efficiently if it were not for these two great pillars.

24. Even great men can become corrupt.

We can all be victims of our greed; it depends on ourselves to be strong enough not to be carried away by it.

25. There is something addictive about secrets.

Knowledge, as Hoover well knew, is power.

26. The purpose of counterintelligence action is to disrupt and it is irrelevant whether facts exist to corroborate the charge.

This well-known leader of the FBI managed to get his hands on a wealth of secrets, valuable information that would later make him one of the most powerful people in the world.

27. The American mind simply has not realized the evil that has crept into our midst.

The United States was a country with great social and economic differences, and the future that awaited that nation seemed to be totally uncertain at that time.

28. The will to do, the tenacity to overcome all obstacles and finish the course, the strength to hold on to unrelenting ideals, are all rooted in courage.

We must be courageous if we wish to live a better life tomorrow; it is our daily actions that will lead us directly to the destiny that each of us deserves.

29. There is only one way to eliminate juvenile delinquency: provide every child in America with competent parents.

A very interesting quote that many people should take into account, only by giving the right values to our children will we be able to have a better society in the future.

30. A child who has been taught to respect the laws of God will have little difficulty respecting the laws of men.

As we can see, religion was very important to him. Hoover thought that thanks to it everyone could obtain more correct moral principles, something that would later help us to develop better in society.

31. There will never be another black messiah unless we believe in him.

The struggle for civil rights was very present in those times, a time when racial segregation was still looked upon very favorably by an important part of society.

32. What is important at this point is to clarify again the difference between hero and villain.

Some criminals were seen in those days as the "Robin Hoods" of the time, a very distorted view of reality that obviously had to change.

33. The individual is at a disadvantage as he comes face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he cannot believe it exists.

Some conspiracies seem to be straight out of a science fiction book, plots to which Hoover had full access thanks to his position as head of the FBI.

34. The communist threat from without should not blind us to the communist threat from within. The latter is reaching into the Heart of America through its espionage agents and a cunning, defiant, lawless Communist party, which is fanatically dedicated to the Marxist cause of world slavery and the destruction of the foundations of our republic.

Communism was a great evil of that time that certainly had to be fought, or at least that was the vision that American leaders preached.

35. The efforts of all law enforcement agencies with the support and understanding of the American people.

Prior to the FBI, there was no law enforcement agency in the United States with the capacity to operate throughout its territory, something that fortunately changed with its creation.

36. It rejects even the assumption that human creatures could adopt a philosophy that must ultimately destroy all that is good and decent.

What society will be like in the future is something none of us know, let us hope that luck will always be a factor that accompanies us throughout our development.

37. When morals decline and good men do nothing, evil flourishes.

If good people do not act accordingly to their thoughts, the wicked will certainly have a clear path.

38. We must never forget our history.

Those events that unfortunately happened in the past can help us make better decisions in the future.

39. A society that is unwilling to learn from the past is doomed.

Only if we learn from our mistakes will we achieve a much better society in the future, a task in which we must all play our part.

40. The most effective weapon against crime is cooperation.

When state agencies act together, there is little that criminals can do to try to prevent them.