| schema:text
| - A quote attributed to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter about the difference between strong and weak nations was circulating online in late December 2024 following the 100-year-old's death on Dec. 29.
The passage, which social media users shared on X (archived), Facebook (archived) and Threads (archived), read in full:
A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It's a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.
(Facebook)
Snopes readers asked us to verify Carter's alleged comments after being unable to find evidence he produced them in a book or speech. We have previously reported on how to authenticate viral quotes attributed to historical figures.
In this case, the quote was authentically produced by the former president, which is why we have rated this claim as a correct attribution. He delivered it as part of an Oct. 14, 1976, address to the Liberal Party of New York in New York City during his 1976 presidential election campaign. The immediate context for the quote was Carter's argument in favor of a freeze on the construction of new nuclear weapons.
The full text of the speech is available online through the University of California, Santa Barbara's American Presidency Project, a digital collection of presidential speeches, public papers and other documents. A representative for The American Presidency Project said via email that they transcribed that speech from "The Presidential Campaign 1976," a 1978 publication of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on House Administration that contained speeches and documents related to the 1976 presidential
On Oct. 15, 1976, the day after Carter delivered the speech, the quote in question also appeared in the L.A. Times' coverage of the Liberal Party event in New York.
Carter Proposes Freeze on Building Atomic Weapons
Article from Oct 15, 1976 The Los Angeles Times (Los Angeles, California)
The following year, Carter selected an excerpt from the same speech, including the quote under investigation here, for inclusion in his book "A Government as Good as Its People." Below, the quote as it appears in that book is surrounded by a red box.
("A Government as Good as Its People"/Internet Archive)
The three versions of the quote linked to above have some slight variations, such as comma placement and the use of "it is" as opposed to "it's," as can be seen in the comparison chart below. However, these differences are minor and do not affect the meaning of the quote.
(American Presidency Project/L.A. Times/"A Government as Good as Its People")
Although Carter was no longer alive to personally confirm or deny that he produced the quote about strong and weak nations by the time this report was written, there is enough demonstrable evidence to establish the passage's authenticity.
Previously, we investigated claims that Carter once noted that "Jesus never said a word about homosexuality."
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)