US Presidency
1974

I can understand that others may have different priorities. This has been and this will remain my first priority and the chief legacy I hope to leave from the eight years of my Presidency. This does not mean that we shall not have other priorities, because as we strengthen the peace, we must also continue each year a steady strengthening of our society here at home. Our conscience requires it, our interests require it, and we must insist upon it. As we create more jobs, as we build a better health care system, as we improve our education, as we develop new sources of energy, as we provide more abundantly for the elderly and the poor, as we strengthen the system of private enterprise that produces our prosperity as we do all of this and even more, we solidify those essential bonds that hold us together as a nation. Even more importantly, we advance what in the final analysis government in America is all about.