It is only a beginning, always. The young must know it; the old must know it. It must always sustain us, because the greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes and you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes, because only if you have been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. ~ Final televised Address to the Nation from the Oval Office on January 17, 1977.

Rationalising his narrow escape from censure over the Watergate Scandal during the critical period July - November 1973.

On July 13, 1973, Donald Sanders, the Assistant Minority Counsel, asked Alexander Butterfield (Deputy Assistant to the President) if there were any type of recording systems in the White House. Butterfield answered falsely that there was no system in the White House that automatically recorded everything in the Oval Office. The shocking revelation that there was such as system emerged during the Carter Presidency and radically transformed the historical view of the crisis - but by then, it was too late with the tapes long since removed from the White House.

Public reaction was still hostile with protestors standing along the sidewalks outside the White House holding signs saying 'HONK TO IMPEACH,' and hundreds of cars driving by honking their horns. Allegations of wrongdoing prompted Nixon famously to state 'I am not a crook' in front of 400 startled Associated Press managing editors at Walt Disney World in Florida on November 17, 1973. Much like the famous Chequers Speech of twenty years before, Nixon succeeded in cauterising the wound with a direct appeal based upon his personal integrity.

Ultimately, the American public's respect for the Presidency was again exploited by Trick Dicky to pull off yet another incredible escape. A transcript of Nixon's speech is described at the History Place.