Quotes (74)
"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts."
"At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religous or political ideas."
"Peace, n. In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting."
"The basis of a democratic state is liberty."
"The only stable state is the one in which all men are equal before the law."
"I can't screw up Alabama. We are number 48 in everything and Arkansas and Mississippi aren't going anywhere."
"Earlier today, President Bush said Kerry will be a tough and hard-charging opponent. That explains why Bush's nickname for Kerry is math."
"John Kerry had surgery on his right shoulder this week to repair some damage. It was pretty bad, he had no feeling. It was almost like he was a Republican."
"John Kerry says that foreign leaders want him to be president, but that he can't name the foreign leaders. That's all right, President Bush can't name them either."
Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
"God loves you, and I love you. And you can count on both of us as a powerful message that people who wonder about their future can hear."
"Iraqis are sick of foreign people coming in their country and trying to destabilize their country."
"I am absolutely convinced with time we'll find out that they did have a weapons program."
"There's no such thing as being too closely aligned with the oil industry in West Texas."
"We'll make sure that people have their voice, but aren't able to tie it all up."
"The best way to fight evil is to do some good. Let me qualify that -- the best way to fight evil at home is to do some good. The best way to fight them abroad is to unleash the military. It is so important for citizens in this country to put a face on America for the world to see, the true face."
"We expect there to be transparency. People who have something to hide make us nervous."
"Anyway, it was an interesting day."
"I have no ambition whatsoever to use this as a political issue"
REPORTER: Mr. President, some firefighters and families of the 9/11 victims -- of the 9/11 victims want you to pull your campaign ad focusing on the tragedy. Are you prepared to honor their wishes?
Bush: First of all, I will continue to speak about the effects of 9/11 on our country and my presidency. I will continue to mourn the loss of life on that day, but I'll never forget the lessons. The terrorists declared war on us on that day, and I will continue to pursue this war. I have an obligation to those who died. I have an obligation to those who were heroic in their attempts to rescue. And I won't forget that obligation.
"No, I know all the war rhetoric, but it's all aimed at achieving peace."
"In 1994, there were 67 schools in Texas that were rated "exemplorary" according to our own tests."
"We got a recession because we went to war."
"If you put your mind to it, the first-time home buyer, the low-income home buyer can have just as nice a house as anybody else."
"Sometimes things aren't exactly black and white when it comes to accounting procedures."
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George W. Bush
, Justifying his oil firm's accounting record, July 8, 2002
"Look, I don't care about the numbers. I know the facts."
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George W. Bush
, Answer to economists who were debating the economic impact of September 11, Mar. 8, 2002
"It's also important for people to know we never seek to impose our culture or our form of government. We just want to live under those universal values, God-given values."
"Government can hand out money, but it cannot put hope into people's hearts. It cannot put faith into people's lives."
"America is a nation that is -- a nation that values our relationship with an Almighty. Declaration of God in the Pledge of Allegiance doesn't violate rights. As a matter of fact, it's a confirmation of the fact that we received our rights from God, as proclaimed in our Declaration of Independence. I -- I believe that it points up the fact that we need common-sense judges who understand that our rights were derived from God. And those are the kind of judges I intend to put on the bench."
"I'm sure there is some kind of heavy doctrinal difference, which I'm not sophisticated enough to explain to you."
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George W. Bush
, In reference to his attending a Methodist church instead of an Episcopal church
"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right."
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
"There are more instances of abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation."
"John Kerrys victory over Howard Dean has completely changed the presidential race around. Now instead of the rich white guy from Yale who lives in the White house facing off against the rich white guy from Yale who lives in Vermont, he may have to face the rich white guy from Yale who lives in Massachusetts. Its a whole different game."
"Political experts are saying the reason John Kerry is doing so well is because he's 'electable.' Hey, so was Al Gore - in fact, he even got elected and it didn't help him at all."
"The Bushites, as the world has now learned, are barkers who intend to do it their way, so don't bother them with any democratic niceties or test their patience with your unauthorized opinion. Bush himself not only recoils from dissent, but also is determinedly dismissive of both dissenters and their right to dissent."
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
"The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life."
"When we got into office, the thing that surprised me the most was that things were as bad as we'd been saying they were."
"If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich."
"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."
"Wherever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be. But she (America) goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy."
"The thing I dont understand is why people have the need to express their political opinions on the back of their car."
"Should the nation's wealth be redistributed? It has been and continues to be redistributed to a few people in a manner strikingly unhelpful."
"Without accountability, they will be stupid or evil; and without transparency, there's no way to tell the difference."
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of congress; but I repeat myself."
There's no crime in being ignorant. Problems arise when people who don't know they're ignorant rise to power.
"Cutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard drive."
For the rational study of the law the blackletter man may be the man of the present, but the man of the future is the man of statistics and the master of economics. It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past.
Politics is the art of turning influence into affluence.
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors."
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds
"Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance."
"Certainty is a poor guide to truth"
"A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country."
"No more good must be attempted than the public can bear."
"I can't watch it. Whenever I change my channel to Fox News, my apartment start moving to the right."
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Thomas Mathew
, Response when asked if he would watch O'Reilly Factor's interview of Bush.
"Let nothing interfere with economic growth, even though that growth is castrating truth, poisoning beauty, turning a continent into a shit-heap and driving an entire civilization insane."
"Whether a man is a criminal or a public servant is purely a matter of perspective."
"I don't approve of political jokes... I've seen too many of them get elected."
"Bureaucracy is a challenge to be conquered with a righteous attitude, a tolerance for stupidity, and a bulldozer when necessary."
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning.
"Our constitution protects aliens, drunks and U.S. Senators."
"I belong to no organized party. I am a Democrat."
"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."
"There's no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you."
"The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best."
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Will Rogers
, Illiterate Digest (1924), "Breaking into the Writing Game"
"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock."