American Politician Quotes

I have a lot to weigh: the basis of public service, which I've given my life to, a career choice. And most importantly, what I want to do as a parent. I know something about the White House. That, I assume, is one of the reasons that President-elect Obama would like me to serve. But I also know something about what it means to a family.

It's time to take the "Men Only" sign off the White House door.

Carol Moseley Braun

My stern chase after time is, to borrow a simile from Tom Paine, like the race of a man with a wooden leg after a horse.

John Quincy Adams

More and more parents are coming to realize their children are suffering at the hands of a system built to strangle any reform, any innovation, or any change.... This realization is becoming more evident as the momentum builds for an education revolution.

We will not cut one penny from the safety net until we've cut every penny from corporate welfare.

Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: Satisfied that at this late hour, you will be more pleased to hear of your formal dissolution than of any thing else which could be uttered and as the time fixed by the Constitution for the duration of your session is about to expire, I announce the this House now stands adjourned.

John M. Sandidge

The countries of the American continent and the adjacent islands are for the United States the natural marts of supply and demand.

Chester A. Arthur

Stand up for what you believe in, because you can fall for anything.

Les Brown (speaker)

As long as the Negroes are held down by deprivation and lack of opportunity, the other poor people will be held down alongside them.

The fundamental question for the United States is how it can cooperate to help meet the basic needs of the people of the hemisphere despite the philosophical disagreements it may have with the nature of particular regimes. It must seek pragmatic ways to help people without necessarily embracing their governments. It should recognize that diplomatic relations are merely practical conveniences and not measures of moral judgment.

Nelson Rockefeller

I say to you gentlemen, that this discrimination against the Negro race in this country is unjust, is unworthy of a high-minded people whose example should have a salutary influence in the world.

Joseph Hayne Rainey

You knew what you were doing. You knew that shock and indecency creates a buzz that moves market share and lines your pockets.

The nearest approach to immortality on earth is a government bureau.

James F. Byrnes

On comparing Sept. 11 events to the burning of the Reichstag building in Nazi Germany: "It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it and it put the leader of that country [Hitler] in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted. The fact is that I'm not saying [Sept. 11] was a [U.S.] plan, or anything like that because, you know, that's how they put you in the nut-ball box - dismiss you."

The Democratic Party is like a mule—without pride of ancestry or hope of posterity.

Ignatius L. Donnelly

Voting and participating in the democratic process are key. The vote is the most powerful nonviolent change agent you have in a democratic society. You must use it because it is not guaranteed. You can lose it.

Local defense will always be important. But there is no local defense which alone will contain the mighty land power of the Communist world. Local defense must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power.

John Foster Dulles

The leaders who are now managing the Democratic Party in this state are the men who at the regular session of the legislature in 1861, declared that, if an army went from Indiana to assist in puting down the rebellion, it must first pass over their dead bodies.

Oliver P. Morton

Perestroika basically is creating material incentives for the individual. Some of the comrades deny that, but I can't see it any other way. In that sense human nature kinda goes backwards. It's a step backwards. You have to realize the people weren't quite ready for a socialist production system.

Let me remind you this has been going on for years. We are bringing it to a halt. The harsh fact of the matter is when you're going to pass legislation that will cover 300 [million] American people in different ways it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps that have to be taken to put the legislation together to control the people.

Political society wants things simple. Political scientists know them to be complex... One could argue that, in part, the leftist impulse is so conspicuous among the educated and well-to-do precisely because they are exposed to more information, and are accordingly forced to choose between living with the strains of complexity, or lapsing into simplism.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Hillary Clinton was for the Iran agreement. And I can't support someone who is for the Iran agreement.... In my case, I'll be writing in General Colin Powell. That, I think, would be the best person.

Compromise, hell! That's what happened to us all down the line — and that's the very cause of our woes. If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?

I am one of them You do not seem to understand who I am I am a black woman, the daughter of a dining-car worker.... If my life has any meaning at all, it is that those who start out as outcasts can wind up as being part of the system

Patricia Roberts Harris

A lot of my measures were embraced in other bills. I don't want to be (like) Kennedy, Rostenkowski … (and) put bad legislation on the books.