Politician
Definition: A person who is professionally involved in politics, especially as a holder of an elected office.
Politicians: The plural form of the noun "politician."
Number of Quotes: 214
I am not a centrist.
Bella Abzug
I'm a politician. I run for office. That's my profession.
Bella Abzug
I will undoubtedly have to seek what is happily known as gainful employment, which I am glad to say does not describe holding public office.
Dean Acheson
No people in history have ever survived who thought they could protect their freedom by making themselves inoffensive to their enemies.
Dean Acheson
The trouble with this country is that there are too many politicians who believe, with a
conviction based on experience, that you can fool all of the people all of the time.
Franklin P. Adams
No man, however strong, can serve ten years as schoolmaster, priest, or Senator, and remain fit for anything else.
Henry Adams
A desire to be observed, considered, esteemed, praised, beloved, and admired by his fellows
is one of the earliest as well as the keenest dispositions discovered in the heart of man.
John Adams
A government of laws, and not of men.
John Adams
Abuse of words has been the great instrument of sophistry and chicanery, of party, faction, and division of society.
John Adams
All the perplexities, confusion and distress in America arise, not from defects in their Constitution or Confederation,
not from want of honor or virtue, so much as from the downright ignorance of the nature of coin, credit and circulation.
John Adams
As much as I converse with sages and heroes, they have very little of my love and admiration. I
long for rural and domestic scene, for the warbling of birds and the prattling of my children.
John Adams
Because power corrupts, society's demands for moral authority and character increase as the importance of the position increases.
John Adams
Democracy... while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts
long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
John Adams
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or
the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
John Adams
Fear is the foundation of most governments.
John Adams
Genius is sorrow's child.
John Adams
Great is the guilt of an unnecessary war.
John Adams
Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination - everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and
ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.
John Adams
I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in
providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.
John Adams
I have accepted a seat in the House of Representatives, and thereby have consented to my own ruin, to your
ruin, and to the ruin of our children. I give you this warning that you may prepare your mind for your fate.
John Adams
I must not write a word to you about politics, because you are a woman.
John Adams
I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.
John Adams
I, poor creature, worn out with scribbling for my bread and my liberty, low in spirits and weak in health, must
leave others to wear the laurels which I have sown, others to eat the bread which I have earned. A common case.
John Adams
In politics the middle way is none at all.
John Adams
Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.
John Adams
Liberty, according to my metaphysics is a self-determining power in an intellectual agent. It implies thought and choice and power.
John Adams
Liberty cannot be preserved without general knowledge among the people.
John Adams
My country has contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.
John Adams
Old minds are like old horses; you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.
John Adams
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
John Adams
Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve your freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it.
John Adams
Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak.
John Adams
Power always thinks... that it is doing God's service when it is violating all his laws.
John Adams
Property is surely a right of mankind as real as liberty.
John Adams
Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.
John Adams
The Declaration of Independence I always considered as a theatrical show. Jefferson ran away with all the stage effect of that... and all the glory of it.
John Adams
The essence of a free government consists in an effectual control of rivalries.
John Adams
The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.
John Adams
The furnace of affliction produces refinement, in states as well as individuals.
John Adams
The happiness of society is the end of government.
John Adams
The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate,
I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.
John Adams
The right of a nation to kill a tyrant in case of necessity can no more be doubted than to hang a robber, or kill a flea.
John Adams
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.
John Adams
Thomas Jefferson still survives.
Last words of President John Adams.
John Adams
When people talk of the freedom of writing, speaking or thinking I cannot choose but laugh. No such thing ever existed. No such
thing now exists; but I hope it will exist. But it must be hundreds of years after you and I shall write and speak no more.
John Adams
While all other sciences have advanced, that of government is at a standstill - little
better understood, little better practiced now than three or four thousand years ago.
John Adams
According to the Stoics, all vice was resolvable into folly: according to the Christian principle, it is all the effect of weakness.
John Quincy Adams
All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse.
John Quincy Adams
Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.
John Quincy Adams
America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.
John Quincy Adams
Democracy, pure democracy, has at least its foundation in a generous theory of human rights. It is founded on the natural
equality of mankind. It is the cornerstone of the Christian religion. It is the first element of all lawful government upon earth.
John Quincy Adams
Gratitude, warm, sincere, intense, when it takes possession of the bosom, fills the
soul to overflowing and scarce leaves room for any other sentiment or thought.
John Quincy Adams
Heaven has given to every human being the power of controlling his passions, and if
he neglects or loses it, the fault is his own, and he must be answerable for it.
John Quincy Adams
I have no predilection for unpopularity as such, but I hold it much preferable to the
popularity of a day, which perishes with the transient topic upon which it is grounded.
John Quincy Adams
In order to preserve the dominion of our own passions, it behooves us to be constantly
and strictly on our guard against the influence and infection of the passions of others.
John Quincy Adams
Is not the brand of double-dealer
stamped on the forehead of every democratic slaveholder? Are not
fraud and hypocrisy the religion of the man who calls himself a democrat, and hold his fellow-man in bondage?
John Quincy Adams
It is among the evils of slavery that it taints the very sources of moral principle. It establishes false estimates of virtue and vice: for what
can be more false and heartless than this doctrine which makes the first and holiest rights of humanity to depend upon the color of the skin?
John Quincy Adams
It is of no use to discover our own faults and infirmities unless the discovery prompts up to amendment.
John Quincy Adams
It was the special purpose of Christ's appearance upon earth to bring immortality to light.
John Quincy Adams
Nip the shoots of arbitrary power in the bud, is the only maxim which can ever preserve the liberties of any people.
John Quincy Adams
Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.
John Quincy Adams
The Declaration of Independence pronounced the irrevocable decree of political separation, between the
United States and their people on the one part, and the British king, government, and nation on the other.
John Quincy Adams
The great object of the institution of civil government is the improvement of those who are parties to the social compact.
John Quincy Adams
The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one
indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.
John Quincy Adams
This idea of the transcendent power of the Supreme Being is essentially connected
with that by which the whole duty of man is summed up: obedience to His will.
John Quincy Adams
The more you meditate on the laws of Moses, the more striking and brighter does their wisdom appear.
John Quincy Adams
This is the last of earth! I am content.
John Quincy Adams
To read the Bible is of itself a laudable occupation and can scarcely fail of being a useful employment of time; but the habit of
reflecting upon what you have read is equally essential as than of reading itself, to give it all the efficacy of which it is susceptible.
John Quincy Adams
Where annual elections end, there slavery begins.
John Quincy Adams
A platitude is simply a truth repeated till people get tired of hearing it.
Stanley Baldwin
A statesman must be a patriot, but he must also be a realist.
Stanley Baldwin
A statesman wants courage and a statesman wants vision; but believe me, after six
months' experience, he wants first, second, third and all the time - patience.
Stanley Baldwin
Democracy is a system of government which makes it possible for people to get rid of the government and try another without violence.
Often cited in discussions about democratic governance, though the exact source is debated.
Stanley Baldwin
Had the employers of past generations all of them dealt fairly with their employees there would have been no unions.
Stanley Baldwin
I am not struck so much by the diversity of testimony as by the many-sidedness of truth.
Stanley Baldwin
I am one of those who would rather sink with faith than swim without it.
Stanley Baldwin
I would rather be an opportunist and float than go to the bottom with my principles around my neck.
From a 1931 speech defending his pragmatic approach to the Indian independence movement.
Stanley Baldwin
I would rather trust a woman's instinct than a man's reason.
Stanley Baldwin
Let us never forget this: since the day of the air, the old frontiers are gone. When you think of the defense of
England you no longer think of the chalk cliffs of Dover; you think of the Rhine. That is where our frontier lies.
Stanley Baldwin
Power without responsibility — the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.
From a 1931 speech criticizing press barons Beaverbrook and Rothermere. Baldwin attributed the phrase to his
cousin Rudyard Kipling.
Stanley Baldwin
Since the day of the air, the old frontiers are gone.
Stanley Baldwin
The bomber will always get through.
From a 1932 speech on disarmament, highlighting the vulnerability of civilians to air attacks.
Stanley Baldwin
The greatest crime to our own people is to be afraid to tell the truth.
Stanley Baldwin
The intelligent are to the intelligentsia what a gentleman is to a gent.
From a 1927 speech critiquing pretentious intellectualism.
Stanley Baldwin
The only defense is offense, which means that you have to kill more women and children more quickly than the enemy if you wish to save yourselves.
Stanley Baldwin
The real need of the day is moral and spiritual rearmament. God's Living
Spirit can transcend conflicting political systems, can reconcile order and freedom.
Stanley Baldwin
War would end if the dead could return.
Stanley Baldwin
You will find in politics that you are much exposed to the attribution of false motive. Never complain and never explain.
Stanley Baldwin
A diplomatic solution that puts significant and verifiable constraints on Iran's nuclear program represents the best and most
sustainable chance to ensure that America, Israel, the entire Middle East will never be menaced by a nuclear-armed Iran.
Joe Biden
A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth, and telling the truth has never hurt me.
Joe Biden
Abe Foxman has been a friend and advisor of mine for a long time.
Joe Biden
Al Qaeda is almost all in Pakistan, and Pakistan has nuclear weapons. And yet for every dollar
we're spending in Pakistan, we're spending $30 in Afghanistan. Does that make strategic sense?
Joe Biden
America doesn't have health insurance.
Joe Biden
America's commitment to collective defense under Article 5 of NATO is a sacred
obligation in our view - a sacred obligation not just for now, but for all time.
Joe Biden
America's experience, like many others, teaches us that fostering entrepreneurship is not just about crafting the right economic
policy or developing the best educated curricula. It's about creating an entire climate in which innovation and ideas flourish.
Joe Biden
Anyone who's traveled with me to Afghanistan knows why I love this book: War,
by Sebastian Junger.
Joe Biden
As a matter of fact, I didn't make a political speech outside of my state for 20 years.
Joe Biden
Barack Obama is probably the most exciting candidate
that either the Democratic or Republican party has produced at least since I've been around. He's fresh, he's new, he's insightful.
Joe Biden
Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen's faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-
tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.
Joe Biden
Corruption is just another form of tyranny.
Joe Biden
Don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative.
A frequent refrain contrasting himself with opponents,
particularly Donald Trump.
Joe Biden
Don't hold against me that I don't own - that I don't own a single stock or bond. Don't hold it - I have no savings accounts.
Joe Biden
Don't tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.
Joe Biden
During the 60's, I was, in fact, very concerned about the civil rights movement.
Joe Biden
El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras have all agreed to send additional consular officers from Guatemala, from Honduras, from El Salvador, send
them to the U.S. border so that we can more quickly and humanely identify unaccompanied children and process their individual removal.
Joe Biden
Every Republican's voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they're
proposing. Romney wants to let the - he said in the first 100
days he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules - unchain Wall Street. They're gonna put y'all back in chains.
Joe Biden
Except for the title father,
there is no title, including vice president,
that I am more proud to wear than that of United States senator.
Joe Biden
Failure at some point in your life is inevitable, but giving up is unforgivable.
Joe Biden
Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It's self-defense. It's patriotism.
Joe Biden
Folks, I can tell you I know we're making progress when I look at the past.
Characteristic phrasing emphasizing progress from a difficult past.
Joe Biden
Folks, I can tell you I've known eight presidents, three of them intimately.
Joe Biden
Folks, you're the reason that the automobile industry is back. Whether it was the wage freezes, the plant closures, folks, you sacrificed to keep
your companies open. Because of your productivity, the combined auto companies have committed to invest another $23 billion in expansion in America.
Joe Biden
For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a
government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.
Joe Biden
For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community.
Reflecting his theme of unity and community.
Joe Biden
Foreign policy is like human relations, only people know less about each other.
Joe Biden
Given a fair shot, given a fair chance, Americans have never, ever, ever, ever let
their country down. Never. Never. Ordinary people like us. Who do extraordinary things.
Joe Biden
Global energy security is a vital part of America's national security.
Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more
qualified than I am to be Vice President of the United States of America. Let's get that straight. She's a truly close personal friend. She
is qualified to be President of the United States of America. She's easily qualified to be Vice President of the United States of America.
Joe Biden
I always wonder when it was that I was embraced.
Joe Biden
I believe the American people have a genuine and justifiable fear of government
intrusion in what they instinctively know is going to be an ever more intrusive world.
Joe Biden
I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn't mean I won't run.
Joe Biden
I consider myself to be as informed on American foreign policy as anyone in America.
Joe Biden
I didn't play soccer; I played that other football in grade school through college.
Joe Biden
I don't say very much I don't really think through. I know that sounds inconsistent
with Joe Biden.
Joe Biden
I exaggerate when I'm angry, but I've never gone around telling people things that aren't true about me.
Joe Biden
I graduated from the University of Delaware with a double major in history and political science.
Joe Biden
I guess every single word I've ever said is going to be dissected now.
Joe Biden
I have a really close relationship with Mike Bloomberg.
Joe Biden
I have an expression I use as I've gone around the world through my career: You never tell another man
or woman what's in their interest. They know their interest better than you know their interest.
Joe Biden
I have no doubt that Russia will and should remain a major source of energy supplies for Europe and the world.
Joe Biden
I have Parents
magazine in my home.
Joe Biden
I know I'm not supposed to like muscle cars, but I like muscle cars.
Joe Biden
I know what I believe, I know what I want to do, and I'm just comfortable saying it, and laying it out there.
Joe Biden
I know why we're strong. I know why we have held together; I know why we are united: it's because there's always been a growing middle class.
Joe Biden
I love that Cadillac ATS!
Joe Biden
I ran for the Senate six times. And one of the things I know about Senate races off years and on races, and on years, the same as
governor's races, is it's all local. It all gets down to what the specific issues in that - in that district or that state is.
Joe Biden
I used to say to my late wife, I have great faith in the American people.
Joe Biden
I used to stutter really badly. Everybody thinks it's funny. And it's not funny. It's not.
Joe Biden
I view the vice presidency as a partnership.
Describing his relationship with President Obama.
Joe Biden
I was kind of secretly hoping one of my kids would go out and make a million bucks. So when they put me in a home, at least I'll have a window with a view.
Joe Biden
I was not an activist.
Joe Biden
I'm not big on flak jackets and tie-dyed shirts. You know, that's not me.
Joe Biden
I've been really, really fortunate.
Joe Biden
I've been waiting over 40 years to come to Cyprus, and it has not disappointed - the birthplace of Aphrodite,
the Crossroads of Civilization, and, I might add, a genuine strategic partner to the United States of America.
Joe Biden
I've known and continue to know every one of these major world leaders by their first names, and I have access to them.
Joe Biden
If I don't run for president, we'll all be OK.
Joe Biden
If we do everything right, if we do it with absolute certainty, there's still a 30% chance we're going to get it wrong.
2009 remark on swine flu response, later often referenced or mischaracterized.
Joe Biden
If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't Black.
In an interview with The Breakfast Club
radio program, May 22, 2020.
Joe Biden
If you need more than 10 rounds to hunt, and some argue they hunt with that many rounds, you shouldn't
be hunting. If you can't get the deer in 3 shots, you shouldn't be hunting. You are an embarrassment.
Joe Biden
If you’re in a confined aircraft and you’re not wearing a mask, you should probably be wearing a mask—it doesn't hurt.
During a July 21, 2022 speech in Wilmington, Massachusetts.
Joe Biden
If you're in a confined aircraft; when one person sneezes, it goes all the way through the aircraft.
Joe Biden
In my heart, I'm confident I could make a good president.
Joe Biden
In Romania, American forces have found a devoted NATO ally.
Joe Biden
In the 21st century, the countries that thrive will be the ones where citizens know their voices will be heard because the institutions are transparent.
Joe Biden
In the good old days when I was a senator, I was my own man.
Joe Biden
In the middle of a recession, where we're just climbing out of it, where the economy -unemployment is
still at 9.7 percent, the idea of raising taxes and reducing spending is a prescription for disaster.
Joe Biden
In this world, emotion has become suspect - the accepted style is smooth, antiseptic and passionless.
Joe Biden
Income inequity has to be addressed.
Joe Biden
Innovation can only occur where you can breathe free.
Joe Biden
ISIS is not an existential threat to something happening to someone in the United
States of America. It's a serious problem overseas, but it's confusing and frightening.
Joe Biden
Isn't it a bitch? I mean, ... this vice president thing?
Response to a student body vice president at Harvard College, Oct. 2, 2014.
Joe Biden
It is my view that we cannot conduct foreign policy at the extremes.
Joe Biden
It is no secret that I believe my son, Attorney General Beau Biden would make a great United States Senator - just as I believe he has been a
great Attorney General. But Beau has made it clear from the moment he entered public life, that any office he sought, he would earn on his own.
Joe Biden
It's never, ever a good bet to bet against America.
A core belief and frequent theme in his speeches.
Joe Biden
It's overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure, democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel.
Joe Biden
It's presumptuous to say you know how somebody feels.
Joe Biden
Just talk to me as a father - not what the Constitution says. What do you feel?
Joe Biden
Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I've met with, and I've met them all: It's
never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.
Joe Biden
Let's build back better.
Joe Biden
Let's just be smart this time. I'm looking for smart.
Joe Biden
Life is a matter of really tough choices.
Joe Biden
Look folks, we know who built this country and we know who is going to rebuild
it. It's you. Instead of vilifying you, we should be thanking you. We owe you.
Joe Biden
Look, freedom is an overwhelming American notion. The idea that we want to see the
world, the peoples of the world free is something that all of us subscribe to.
Joe Biden
Malarkey!
His signature term for calling out nonsense or falsehoods.
Joe Biden
Most liberals think of civil liberties as their Achilles heel. It isn't.
Joe Biden
My dad always said, Champ, the measure of a man is not how often he is knocked down, but how quickly he gets up.
Joe Biden
My dad used to have an expression - It is the lucky person who gets up in the morning, puts
both feet on the floor, knows what they are about to do, and thinks it still matters.
Joe Biden
My dad used to have an expression. He'd say, Joey, a job is about a lot more than a
paycheck. It's about your dignity. It's about respect. It's about your place in your community.
Frequently cited to emphasize the value of work.
Joe Biden
No fundamental right is safe in this country if the right to vote is undermined.
Emphasizing the importance of voting rights.
Joe Biden
No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It's because civil society... begins to rise up and demand change.
Joe Biden
No matter how you cut it, this real debate on personal accounts is about the legitimacy of Social Security; it's not about the solvency of Social Security.
Joe Biden
No nation should stoke instability in its neighbor's country.
Joe Biden
No nation should threaten its neighbors by massing troops along the border.
Joe Biden
No one doubts that innocent men, women and children have been the victims of chemical weapons attacks in Syria.
And there's no doubt who is responsible for this heinous use of chemical weapons in Syria: the Syrian regime.
Joe Biden
No one ever doubts that I mean what I say. The problem is I sometimes say all that I mean.
Joe Biden
No one making less than $250,000 under Barack Obama's
plan will see one single penny of their tax raised, whether it's their capital gains tax, their income tax, investment tax, any tax.
Joe Biden
Now, people when I say that look at me and say, What are you talking about, Joe? You're telling me we
have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt?
. The answer is yes, that's what I'm telling you.
Joe Biden
Nowhere is it written that there must be conflict between the United States and China.
Joe Biden
Obama
and Biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars.
Guess what? Yes, we do in one regard: We want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn't have to bear
the burden of all that money going to the super-wealthy. That's not a tax raise. That's called fairness where I come from.
Joe Biden
On the way back from Mumbai to go meet with President Xi in China, I stopped in Singapore to meet with a guy
named Lee Kuan Yew, who most foreign policy experts around the world say is the wisest man in the Orient.
Joe Biden
One of the things I've never been accused of is not caring about people.
Joe Biden
Other than being crazy enough to press a button, there is nothing that Putin can do militarily to fundamentally alter American interests.
Joe Biden
Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.
Joe Biden
People everywhere in the world are hungry for economic opportunity. And it's about a lot more than being able to make money.
Joe Biden
People should not be in a position where their children have access to weapons and ammunition.
Joe Biden
Poor kids are just as bright, just as talented, as white kids.
Remarks made to Asian and Latino Coalition, Des Moines, Iowa, August 8, 2019.
Joe Biden
Prime Minister Netanyahu has, as Minister Livni knows, has
been my friend for over 30 years. We drive each other crazy. But he has truly been a personal friend for well over 30 years. He acknowledged this.
Joe Biden
Putin sought to destabilize Ukraine's economy.
Joe Biden
Putin sought to keep Ukraine weak through corruption.
Joe Biden
Quite frankly, Russian aggression in Ukraine and its illegal occupation of Crimea remind us that we still
have a good deal more work to do to guarantee the strategic vision of a Europe whole, free and at peace.
Joe Biden
Reality has a way of intruding. Reality eventually intrudes on everything.
Joe Biden
Romania can be a linchpin in delivering gas to its neighbors and even become an energy exporter for its neighbors across Central and Eastern Europe.
Joe Biden
Saudi Arabia has allowed training on its soil of American forces.
Joe Biden
Show me your budget, and I'll tell you what you value.
A well-known phrase he often uses to discuss priorities.
Joe Biden
The 21st century is going to be the American century. Because we lead not only by the example
of our power, but by the power of our example. That is the history of the journey of America.
Joe Biden
The American people are so much stronger, so much more resolved than any enemy can fully understand.
Joe Biden
The American people have not become heartless.
Joe Biden
The American people have the right to know if their president is a crook. Well, I'm not a crook.
Paraphrasing/contrasting Nixon's
famous line, used during the 2020 campaign.
Joe Biden
The Chinese have figured out that they have a giant environmental problem. Folks in Beijing, some days,
literally can't breathe. Over a million Chinese die prematurely every year because of air pollution.
Joe Biden
The devastating punch we took on September 11th still reverberates throughout American society.
Joe Biden
The effects of climate change are real and must be acted on.
Joe Biden
The greatest gift is the ability to forget – to forget the bad things and focus on the good.
Joe Biden
The Middle East is hopeful. There's hope there.
Joe Biden
The moral disapprobation of society has an impact on behavior in societies.
Joe Biden
The only thing I know is I ain't changing my brand. I know what I believe. I'm confident in what I
know. And I'm gonna say it. And if folks like it, wonderful. If they don't like it, I understand.
Joe Biden
The Qataris have cut off support for the most extreme elements of terrorist organizations.
Joe Biden
The Recovery Act is working, but it's going to continue to work. It's not over. A lot's
going to happen this summer. And even after the summer, there's more to come with the act.
Joe Biden
The United States supports a strong, united Ukraine with productive and peaceful relationships with both the East and the West, with both Russia and Europe.
Joe Biden
The United States, to state the obvious, is greatly concerned by the startling number of unaccompanied minors
that - children and teenagers who are making a very perilous journey through Central America to reach the United States.
Joe Biden
The White House isn't the place to learn how to deal with international crisis, the
balance of power, war and peace, and the economic future of the next generation.
Joe Biden
There is no inherent power in the office of the vice presidency. Zero. None. It's all a reflection of your relationship
with the president. I mean, Kennedy
never let Johnson in the office.
Joe Biden
There used to be an old bad joke. I hope it's not so much a good joke anymore. Everybody's from Scranton; no one's in Scranton.
Joe Biden
There's a lot of revisionist history that goes on these days about Iraq.
Joe Biden
There's no political point worth my son's life.
Joe Biden
There's one advantage in having been around as long as I have. Everybody in the Senate knows
me, and - I'm going to say something presumptuous, to repeat myself - I think most respect me.
Joe Biden
There's only one person in this race who will be there, who's always been there for you, and
that's Hillary Clinton's life story.
Joe Biden
This is a big fucking deal!
Whispered to President Obama at the signing
of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, caught on hot mic - arguably his most famous utterance, though not an official quote.
Joe Biden
This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.
Joe Biden
Two million felons have tried to buy a gun and, because of the background check, have been denied.
Joe Biden
Unions did in fact build the middle class. And here's what that did. That built the United States of America as we know it.
Joe Biden
We Americans think, in every country in transition, there's
a Thomas Jefferson hiding
behind some rock or a James Madison beyond one sand dune.
Joe Biden
We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line. Don't forget it.
A common patriotic refrain.
Joe Biden
We choose hope over fear. We choose unity over division. We choose light over darkness.
A central theme of his 2020 campaign and presidency.
Joe Biden
We didn't crumble after 9/11. We didn't falter after the Boston Marathon. But we're
America. Americans will never, ever stand down. We endure. We overcome. We own the finish line.
Joe Biden
We don't want two-tier people in America. Those who are legal but not citizens, and citizens.
Joe Biden
We have to be remembered for what's been done.
Joe Biden
We must end this uncivil war.
From his 2021 Inaugural Address, calling for unity.
Joe Biden
We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.
Joe Biden
We're close friends - the American people, the Israeli people, our governments. There's
absolutely no daylight - none - between us and the Israelis on the question of Israel's security.
Joe Biden
We're going to be OK because of the American people. They have more grit, determination and courage than you can imagine.
Joe Biden
Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren't supposed to make money!
Joe Biden
Well, I was 29 years old when I came to the United States Senate, and I have learned a lot.
Joe Biden
What on God's green Earth are we doing?
Expressing exasperation or disbelief, often about gun violence or political obstruction.
Joe Biden
When my first semester grades came out, my mom and dad told me I wouldn't be playing football.
Joe Biden
When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got
on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, Look, here's what happened.
Joe Biden
When we wrote the Constitution, the intention was to give the commander in chief the
authority how to use the forces when you authorize him to be able to use the forces.
Joe Biden
When you go to your local police officer, your police chief in the town you live in, big or small, he will tell you the vast
majority of the weapons recovered at a crime scene are either stolen weapons, and/or they have been lost
or stolen.
Joe Biden
You are twice as likely to be struck by lightning as you around to be affected by a terrorist event in the United States.
Joe Biden
You get a lawyer whether you're in a military tribunal or whether you're in a federal court, number one. The attorney general decided that
the court with the biggest - with the greatest venue, with the best jurisdiction was the New York court. That was the right decision to make.
Joe Biden
You know, my Grandpop Finnegan used to have an expression: he used to say, Joey, the guy in Olyphant's out of work, it's an
economic slowdown. When your brother-in-law's out of work, it's a recession. When you're out of work, it's a depression.
Joe Biden
You never make fun of anybody with a club foot or a withered arm, but it's open season on anybody who stutters.
Joe Biden
You should be attacking the carbon emissions, period, and whether it's
cap-and-trade or carbon tax or whatever, that's the realm in which we should be playing.
Joe Biden
You want to know whether we're better off? I've got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General
Motors is alive. Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!
Joe Biden
You're a lying dog-faced pony soldier.
Remark made to a student at a campaign event, Hampton, New Hampshire, February 9, 2020.
Joe Biden
You're looking at a middle-class guy. I am who I am.
Joe Biden
You're president, if you conclude my judgment is not the right judgment, I abide by that, but I want an opportunity to have an input.
Joe Biden
You've all seen over the last eight years what President Obama means
to this country. He is the embodiment of honor, resolve, and character - one of the finest presidents we have ever had.
Joe Biden
You've got to reach a hand of friendship across the aisle and across philosophies in this country.
Joe Biden
All skills begin with the basics of reading and math, which are supposed to be learned in the early
grades of our schools. Yet for too long, for too many children, those skills were never mastered.
George W. Bush
Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job.
To FEMA director Michael Brown, who resigned 10 days later amid criticism over his handling of the Hurricane Katrina debacle.
George W. Bush
I really am not the kind of guy that sits here and says, Oh gosh, I'm worried about my legacy.
Quote from an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes on January 14, 2007.
George W. Bush
I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for
Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.
In Washington, D.C.
George W. Bush
Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundations of America.
George W. Bush
There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -
that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.
In Nashville, Tennessee.
George W. Bush
These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of America's resolve.
George W. Bush
They misunderestimated me.
In Bentonville, Arkansas.
George W. Bush
Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country.
In Poplar Bluff, Missouri.
George W. Bush
You're working hard to put food on your family.
In Greater Nashua, New Hampshire.
George W. Bush
Each man the architect of his own fate.
Appius Claudius Caecus
Give me the avowed, the erect, the manly foe,
Bold I can meet - perhaps may turn his blow!
But of all plagues, Good Heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save, save, Oh, save me from the candid friend!
George Canning
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations ... The quotations when engraved upon
the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.
Winston Churchill
I have tried so hard to do the right.
Grover Cleveland
Great nations need organizing principles, and Don't do stupid stuff
is not an organizing principle.
Atlantic Online interview, August 10, 2014.
Hillary Clinton
I don't think they're piling on because I'm a woman. I think they're piling on because I'm winning.
In response to intensifying criticism for the Democratic presidential nomination on November 2, 2007.
Hillary Clinton
In every era, society must strike the right balance between the freedom businesses need to
compete for a market share and to make profits and the preservation of family and community values.
Hillary Clinton
(In politics) you need both a public and a private position.
Speech to National Multi-Housing Council released by WikiLeaks, October 7, 2016.
Hillary Clinton
Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of
time, and I think a marriage is as a marriage always has been, between a man and a woman.
Hillary Clinton
There cannot be true democracy unless women's voices are heard. There cannot be true democracy unless women are given the opportunity to take
responsibility for their own lives. There cannot be true democracy unless all citizens are able to participate fully in the lives of their country.
Hillary Clinton
Too many companies, especially large ones, are driven more and more narrowly by the need to ensure that investors get good
quarterly returns and to justify executives' high salaries. Too often, this means that they view most employees as costs.
Hillary Clinton
We came out of the White House not only dead broke, but in debt.
ABC News interview, June 9, 2014.
Hillary Clinton
What, like with a cloth or something?
Response to a reporter's questions about whether she wiped her server, North Las Vegas, Nevada, August 18, 2015.
Hillary Clinton
You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables.
Remarks at a fundraiser, New York, September 9, 2016.
Hillary Clinton
When we're dancing with the angels, the question will be asked: In 2019, what did we do to make
sure we kept our democracy intact? Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing? Did we play games?
Closing statement at public hearing of Michael Cohen before House of Representatives Oversight Committee, February 27, 2019.
Elijah Cummings
The greatest good you can do for another is not just share your riches, but to reveal to him his own.
Benjamin Disraeli
There is no education like adversity.
Benjamin Disraeli
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final
sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Leadership consists of nothing but taking responsibility for everything that
goes wrong and giving your subordinates credit for everything that goes well.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
I grew up castrating hogs on an Iowa farm, so when I come to Washington, I'll know how to cut pork.
Iowa Senatorial candidate Joni Ernst, campaign advertisement quoted in National Journal, March 25, 2014.
Joni Ernst
I'm not giving up politics entirely - I'm just giving up leadership of a political party.
Nigel Farage
If we want to preserve the foundation of our democracy, it's vital that we find common ground that allows us to work for the
greater good of this nation. This does not mean giving up our values. This does not mean swallowing a bitter compromise.
Tulsi Gabbard
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
Mahatma Gandhi
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
Mahatma Gandhi
You can't fight against the future. Time is on our side.
William Gladstone
We did it, Joe. You're going to be the next president of the United States.
In a phone call with Joe Biden,
U.S. president-elect, after their victory in the 2022 presidential election was projected on November 7, 2022.
Kamala Harris
Three things happen when you get to my age. First your memory starts to go ... and I have forgotten the other two.
Denis Healey
I like a nice cup of tea in the morning,
For to start the day, you see,
And at half-past eleven
Well, my idea of Heaven
Is a nice cup of tea:
I like a nice cup of tea with me dinner
And a nice cup of tea with me tea,
And when it's time for bed
There's a lot to be said
For a nice cup of tea.
A. P. Herbert
There are those who never stretch out the hand for fear it will be bitten. But
those who never stretch out the hand will never feel it clasped in friendship.
Michael Heseltine
Others appear frozen in the headlights - aware of the likely impact, yet paralysed by the fear of major transformations.
Patricia Hewitt
When I started out, people were afraid of parish priests. Now they're afraid of newspaper editors.
Michael D. Higgins
Oh, do not cry - be good children and we will all meet in heaven.
Andrew Jackson
One man with courage makes a majority.
Andrew Jackson
The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that operates with perfect equality.
Andrew Jackson
There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection, and, as
Heaven does its rains, shower its favors alike on the high and the low, the rich and the poor, it would be an unqualified blessing.
Andrew Jackson
Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies.
Thomas Jefferson
I am captivated more by dreams of the future than by history of the past.
Thomas Jefferson
I find that pain of a little censure, even when it is unfounded, is more acute than the pleasure of much praise.
Thomas Jefferson
I see no comfort in outliving one's friends, and remaining a mere monument of the times which are past.
Thomas Jefferson
In matters of style, swim with the current;
In matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson
Is it the Fourth?
Thomas Jefferson
Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.
Thomas Jefferson
The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson
The moment a person forms a theory his imagination sees in every object only the traits which favour that theory.
Thomas Jefferson
Though an old man I am but a young gardener.
Thomas Jefferson
Too old to plant trees for my own gratification, I shall do it for my posterity.
Thomas Jefferson
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Thomas Jefferson
I just find it absolutely bizarre that we are being lectured by the Americans about giving up our sovereignty and giving up control when
the Americans won't even sign up to the international convention on the law of the seas, let alone the International Criminal Court.
Boris Johnson
I would rather be dead in a ditch than ask the European Union for a delay in Brexit.
Remarks made at a police training center in Wakefield, England, September 5, 2019.
Boris Johnson
We have a great new Brexit deal that takes back control.
Announcing a revised agreement with the European Union on October 17, 2022.
Boris Johnson
The first casualty when war comes is truth.
Hiram Johnson
If two men agree on everything, you can be sure one of them is doing the thinking.
Lyndon B. Johnson
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
John F. Kennedy
Civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.
John F. Kennedy
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.
John F. Kennedy
Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.
John F. Kennedy
If someone is going to kill me, they will kill me.
Arriving in Dallas in 1963.
John F. Kennedy
Let every Nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet
any hardship, support any friend or oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and success of liberty.
Spoken at inaugural address and inscribed on his memorial.
John F. Kennedy
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
John F. Kennedy
Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.
United Nations on September 25, 1961.
John F. Kennedy
The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.
John F. Kennedy
The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie - deliberate, contrived and dishonest - but the myth - persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.
John F. Kennedy
There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.
John F. Kennedy
War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today.
John F. Kennedy
When power leads men towards arrogance, poetry reminds him of his limitations. When power narrows the areas of man's
concern, poetry reminds him of the richness and diversity of his existence. When power corrupts, poetry cleanses.
John F. Kennedy
Is everyone else all right?
Whispered to his wife.
Robert F. Kennedy
Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.
Robert F. Kennedy
I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it.
On voting for a war appropriations bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.
John Kerry
The time for the healing of the wounds has come. The moment to bridge the chasms that divide us has come. The time to build is upon us.
Nelson Mandela
Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either.
Golda Meir
Genius does what it must, and Talent does what it can.
Owen Meredith
What do we want our kids to do? Sweep up around Japanese computers?
Walter Mondale
We can pay the ecological debt by changing economic models, and by giving up luxury consumption,
setting aside selfishness and individualism, and thinking about the people and the planet Earth.
Evo Morales
I am ready to debate how we fight terrorism without giving up our liberty.
Rand Paul
Coffee, (which makes the politician wise, and see thro' all things with his half-shut eyes).
Alexander Pope
Giving back involves a certain amount of giving up.
Colin Powell
Every time I get an opponent - I mean, every time I get a chance - I'm home.
Responding to questioning about whether he actually resides in Kansas, KCMO radio interview, July 3, 2014.
Pat Roberts
The American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.
Bernie Sanders to Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential debate, Las Vegas, October 13, 2015.
Bernie Sanders
The cost of college education today is so high that many young people are giving up
their dream of going to college, while many others are graduating deeply in debt.
Bernie Sanders
Giving up even an ounce of precious freedom is a very serious thing to do.
Chuck Schumer
I have a message for you. You are not welcome here. You have blood on your hands.
To President George W. Bush, in Crawford, Texas.
Cindy Sheehan
Those who are not giving up their nefarious activities even in the holy month of Ramzan, should their activities not be called unholy?
Rajnath Singh
I suppose flattery hurts no one - that is, if he doesn't inhale.
Adlai Stevenson
Be careful, be cautious, do not rush into negotiations ... be careful what you give away now,
you may wish you had not done so should in future the balance of forces turn in your favour.
Oliver Tambo
I am a sportsman and not a politician. I am a sportsman and will always remain one. I am not
going to enter politics giving up cricket, which is my life. I will continue to play cricket.
Sachin Tendulkar
No one would remember the Good Samaritan if he'd only had good intentions. He had money as well.
Margaret Thatcher
We shall not be diverted from our course. To those waiting with bated breath for that favourite media
catch-phrase, the U-turn, I have only this to say. You turn if you want; the lady's not for turning.
Margaret Thatcher
He's not a war hero. ... He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured.
Criticizing John McCain, interview at Family Leadership Summit, Ames, Iowa, July 18, 2015.
Donald Trump
I alone can fix it.
Speech at Republican National Convention, Cleveland, July 21, 2016.
Donald Trump
[I am] not smart, but genius ... and a very stable genius at that!
In a tweet, January 6, 2018.
Donald Trump
I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters.
Speech at campaign rally, Sioux Center, Iowa, January 23, 2016.
Donald Trump
I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job. I faced great pressure because of Russia. That's taken off.
As reported by The New York Times, explaining the firing of James Comey to visiting Russian officials, May 10, 2017.
Donald Trump
I see the disinfectant that knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there
a way we can do something like that by injection inside or almost a cleaning?
Remarks at a White House Coronavirus Task Force news briefing, April 23, 2020.
Donald Trump
I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing.
In a phone call with Gordon Sondland, U.S. ambassador to the European Union, on September 9, 2022.
Donald Trump
I wasn't satisfied just to earn a good living. I was looking to make a statement.
Donald Trump
I would like you to do us a favor, though.
Memorandum of telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy, July 25, 2019.
Donald Trump
If you don't have passion ... you might as well give up ... you have no chance of
making it. Passion is the essence of life, and certainly the essence of success.
Donald Trump
If you're going to be thinking only one thing, you might as well be thinking big.
Donald Trump
In the end, you're measured not by how much you undertake but by what you finally accomplish.
Donald Trump
Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?
On fellow Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, quoted in Rolling Stone magazine, September 24, 2015.
Donald Trump
My style of dealmaking is quite simple and straightforward. I just keep pushing and pushing to get what I'm after.
Donald Trump
One day - it's like a miracle - it will disappear.
Referring to the coronavirus in remarks at an African American History Month reception at the White House, February 27, 2020.
Donald Trump
Sometimes your best investments are the ones you don't make.
Donald Trump
I have a plan for that.
Remark made at She the People
forum, Houston, April 24, 2019.
Elizabeth Warren
There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there - good for you! But I
want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us
paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for.
Andover, Massachusetts, USA in August, 2011.
Elizabeth Warren
Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.
Malcolm X
Last on Earth
