Infamous quotes from politicians

[Luciana]

Some things would better be left unsaid... on a rainy Sunday, I kept trying to remember the most infamous political quotes from Brazilian politicians or pertaining to Brazil. Pure delight.


"This city is so beautiful and clean, it doesn't even seem we're in Africa"
President Lula, last month, showing his appreciation of Africa after having visited half a dozen countries.

"I prefer the smell of horses to the smell of people"
President Figueiredo, in the only interview he gave after his presidency was over.

"I'll arrest and destroy those who oppose it"
President Figueiredo, explaining how he was going to lead the redemocratization process.

"This is not a serious country"
General Charles de Gaulle, upon visiting Brazil in the 1960s. This quote has never been confirmed, but has been around for decades.

"I did it because I wanted to"
President Jânio Quadros, explaining why he renounced the presidency only four months after inauguration. He took the secret to his grave.


Would anyone add some more quotes, in honor for the "brilliance" of politicians worldwide?

 

[Chaos]

"Equal goes it loose."
Former German President Heinrich Lübcke, in an ill-fated attempt to translate "Gleich geht es los" - "It soon begins" word for word. His English skills (or lack of them) were infamous.

"Get me a bottle of beer, or I´ll go on strike."
German Chancellor Gerhardt Schröder, while giving autographs during a tour of eastern Germany, in summer. He didn´t know the journalists´ microphones were still turned on.

"We´re going to cut the budget by 10 percent. The Free Democrats don´t know how much ´10 percent´ is."
German Secretary of Economy Wolfgang Clement. The Free Democratic Party has, for living memory, persistently failed to come even close to 10 percent in national elections.

I´ll come up with more tomorrow.

 

[Iamme]

What a perfect opportunity for this:

'Ask not what you can do for your country; ask what your country can do for you!' :13:

 

[shanek]

Here's a great one:

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." —Irving Fisher, 1929. Amazingly, people took his word over that of von Mises.

How are you for irony?

"I haven't committed a crime. What I did was fail to comply with the law." —David Dinkins, New York City Mayor, answering accusations that he failed to pay his taxes.

When is saying it not saying it?

"He didn't say that. He was reading what was given to him in a speech." —Richard Darman, director of OMB, on George W. Bush's broken campaign promises.

Why drugs are bad:

"I was under medication when I made the decision not to burn the tapes." —President Richard Nixon

Sure, if you ignore all the bad stuff...

"Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country." —Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC

Actually, it's a great place except for all the people.

"The streets are safe in Philadelphia. It's only the people who make them unsafe." —Frank Rizzo, ex-police chief and mayor of Philadelphia.

Eh, those qualifications are overrated anyway...

"After finding no qualified candidates for the position of principal, the school board is extremely pleased to announce the appointment of David Steele to the post." —Philip Streifer, Superintendent of Schools, Barrington Rhode Island.

Guess he wants to downsize himself, huh?

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." —Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

Nothing like a good tautology:

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." —Dan Quayle

Not a direct quote, but it makes the piont:

"Al Gore has said that 'El Niño' is Spanish for 'Global Warming.' I think 'Al Gore' is Democrat for 'Dan Quayle.'" —Tim Slagle

An amazing, inspired conclusion:

"When large numbers of men are unable to find work, unemployment results." —Calvin Coolidge

He was the preincarnate of Yogi Berra:

"For those who like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing they like." —Abraham Lincoln

Yeah, that whole dying thing can put a crimp in your day...

"Those who survived the San Francisco earthquake said, 'Thank God, I'm still alive.' But of course those who died, their lives will never be the same again." —Representative Barbara Boxer (D-California)

It's only a little corrupt...

"I'd just make a little bit of money, I wouldn't make a whole lot." —Texas House Speaker Gib Lewis defending himself against the charge that he would personally profit from a bill he had introduced.

And he had his fingers crossed, too:

"Well, there never was a Bible in the room." —Texas Governor Bill Clements, asked about repeatedly lying about the SMU football scandal.

Well, here's one honest statement at least:

"If you're sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign." —George W. Bush, on the campaign trail in Hilton Head, S.C., Feb. 16, 2000

We know who wears the pants...

"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president." —Hillary Clinton

Pocket change:

"A billion here, a billion there, sooner or later it adds up to real money." —Everett Dirksen

I'll grant him, it's kind of hard without it:

"The internet is a great way to get on the net." —Bob Dole

So THAT'S the problem:

"The police are not here to create disorder; they're here to preserve disorder." —Chicago mayor Daley

Where's the Bad Astronomer when you need him?

"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system." —Vice President Al Gore

Yes, this is the state of the US Government. Live in fear...

 

[Nyarlathotep]

Darn you Shanek, I saw this thread and several good ones popped into my mind. You beat me to every single one of them.

 

[WildCat]

Jeez, Dan Quayle is a smorgasbord of stupid quotes:

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

"Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children."

"We are ready for any unforeseen event that may or may not occur."

"When I have been asked during these last weeks who caused the riots and the killing in L.A., my answer has been direct and simple: Who is to blame for the riots? The rioters are to blame. Who is to blame for the killings? The killers are to blame."

"A low voter turnout is an indication of fewer people going to the polls."

"I love California, I practically grew up in Phoenix."

"We have a firm commitment to NATO, we are a part of NATO. We have a firm commitment to Europe. We are a part of Europe."

"We're going to have the best-educated American people in the world."

"The future will be better tomorrow."

"I have made good judgments in the Past. I have made good judgments in the Future."

"We don't want to go back to tomorrow, we want to go forward."

"Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things."

"I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy - but that could change."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit... Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts."

"Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child."

"I was recently on a tour of Latin America, and the only regret I have was that I didn't study Latin harder in school so I could converse with those people."

Oh, and Shanek - I believe this is also Quayle, not Gore:
"It's time for the human race to enter the solar system."

 

[Paladin]

"Well, first of all, I'm not a military man. I'm just a person who's served in the United States armed forces for most of my adult life." -- General Wesley Clark, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander

 

[Yahweh]

George Bush On Atheism and Patriotism

A transcript from Infidels.org

The following exchange took place at the Chicago airport between Robert I. Sherman of American Atheist Press and George Bush, on August 27 1987. Sherman is a fully accredited reporter, and was present by invitation as a member of the press corps. The Republican presidential nominee was there to announce federal disaster relief for Illinois. The discussion turned to the presidential primary:
<blockquote>RS:
"What will you do to win the votes of Americans who are atheists?"

GB:
"I guess I'm pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me."

RS:
"Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?"

GB:
"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God."

RS:
"Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation of state and church?"

GB:
"Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I'm just not very high on atheists."</blockquote>

UPI reported on May 8, 1989, that various atheist organizations were still angry over the remarks.

The exchange appeared in the Boulder Daily Camera on Monday February 27, 1989. It can also be found in "Free Inquiry" magazine, Fall 1988 issue, Volume 8, Number 4, page 16.

On October 29, 1988, Mr. Sherman had a confrontation with Ed Murnane, co-chairman of the Bush-Quayle '88 Illinois campaign. This concerned a lawsuit Mr. Sherman had filed to stop the Community Consolidated School District 21 (Chicago, Illinois) from forcing his first-grade atheist son to pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States as "one nation under God" (Bush's phrase). The following conversation took place:

<blockquote>RS:
"American Atheists filed the Pledge of Allegiance lawsuit yesterday. Does the Bush campaign have an official response to this filing?"

EM:
"It's bulls**t."

RS:
"What is bulls**t?"

EM:
"Everything that American Atheists does, Rob, is bulls**t."

RS:
"Thank you for telling me what the official position of the Bush campaign is on this issue."

EM:
"You're welcome."</blockquote>

After Bush's election, American Atheists wrote to Bush asking him to retract his statement. On February 21st 1989, C. Boyden Gray, Counsel to the President, replied on White House stationery that Bush substantively stood by his original statement, and wrote:

<blockquote>"As you are aware, the President is a religious man who neither supports atheism nor believes that atheism should be unnecessarily encouraged or supported by the government."</blockquote>

For further information, contact American Atheist Veterans at the American Atheist Press's Cameron Road address.

 

[Yahweh]

"As people do better, they start voting like Republicans...
...unless they have too much education and vote Democratic, which proves there can be too much of a good thing."
-- Karl Rove, White House Advisor

"Listen, Al Gore is a very tough opponent. He is the incumbent. He represents the incumbency. And a challenger is somebody who generally comes from the pack and wins, if you're going to win. And that's where I'm coming from."
-- George W. "Dubya" Bush, Detroit, Sept. 7, 2000

"I have a different vision of leadership. A leadership is someone who brings people together."
-- George W. Bush, Bartlett, Tenn., Aug. 18, 2000

"And if he continues that, I'm going to tell the nation what I think about him as a human being and a person."
-- George W. Bush, the Today show, Aug. 1, 2000

George W. Bush's new Web site, www.georgewbush.com, states that the No. 3 priority of the campaign "Putting Education First."
-- George W. Bush, Washington Post, July 19, 2000

"The fundamental question is, 'Will I be a successful president when it comes to foreign policy?' I will be, but until I'm the president, it's going to be hard for me to verify that I think I'll be more effective."
-- George W. Bush, New York Times, June 28, 2000



This next quote is my personal favorite:

"At one of these governors' conferences, George [W. Bush] turns to me and says: 'What are they talking about?'
I said: 'I don't know.'
He said: 'You don't know anything, do you?'
And I said: 'Not one thing.'
Bush said: 'Neither do I.'
And we kind of high-fived."
-- Republican Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico shares a verbal exchange that took place between him and George W. Bush. (Quote is from the Los Angeles Times, 5/31/00)


Bush: "First of all, Cinco de Mayo is not the independence day. That's dieciséis de Septiembre, and ..."
Matthews: "What's that in English?"
Bush: "Fifteenth of September."
(Dieciséis de Septiembre = Sept. 16)
— Hardball, MSNBC, May 31, 2000


"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."
-- George W. Bush, Reuters, May 5, 2000


Here's a whole is of Bushisms from 2000 to 2003: Bushisms - Adventures George W. Bushspeak

And to end this post properly, a few miscellaneous Bush quotes:

'Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream.'

'I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family.'

'They misunderestimated me.'

'Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?'

 

[Richard G]

"We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society."
-Hillary Clinton, 1993

" The purpose of government is to rein in the rights of the people"
--Bill Clinton, during an interview on MTV in 1993


"We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans . . . ."
--William J. Clinton, USA Today, March 11, 1993



When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly.... [However, now] there's a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there's too much freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it."
Bill Clinton

"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal."
--Janet Reno


"Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed."
--Sara Brady, Chairman, Handgun Control

"What good does it do to ban some guns. All guns should be banned."
--Sen. Howard Metzanbaum


If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.
-Bill Clinton

You know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to have their fair say.
-Bill Clinton

There is no reason for anyone in this country- anyone except a police officer or military person- to buy, to own, to have, to use a handgun. The only way to control handgun use in this country is to prohibit the guns.
-Bill Clinton


"If a President of the United States ever lied to the American people he should resign."
- Bill Clinton running for US Representative in 1974


"Our Police are hampered by the lack of full gun registration. We need to follow the lead of other civilized nations in securing our streets!"
Bill Clinton

 

[Jeff Corey]

"Ich bin ein Berliner."

 

[Nova Land]

It would be helpful (to me, at least) if people would indicate when providing quotes whether they are giving something that they have personally read or heard (in context, in a primary source) or if they are just repeating something that somebody else claims to have read or heard. In the latter case, I would appreciate being given the actual source of the alleged quote.

In other words: if you have read Thomas Jefferson's writings and found an interesting quote there, then by all means pass it along as being from Thomas Jefferson. If, instead, you are reading a book and the author says that Thomas Jefferson said something, and you don't have the time or energy to track the quote down for yourself to see if it (a) actually exists, and (b) means the same when read in context that it seems to mean when quoted on its own, then please tell me where you actually heard the alleged quote so I can check it out for myself.

There are a great many quotes, some even appearing in reputable academic books, that just ain't so. One reason this misinformation thrives is that too many people are willing to mis-speak as to their source.

It sounds more impressive to say "... as Thomas Jefferson said ..." than to say "... as I have been told that Thomas Jefferson said." But if one hasn't actually read Thomas Jefferson, then one shouldn't be giving people the impression that one has.

I appreciate the people who do qualify their statements when they are uncertain about what they are saying. For example, there are several people in this forum who, in their sig lines, give quotes they have heard and enjoyed and are careful to say "attributed to." This lets me know they are simply repeating something they liked the sound of. When people such as this quote something in their posts to bolster their arguments, I tend to give what they say more weight because I am inclined to believe they have actually read what they are talking about. I feel reasonably confident when reading their posts that if they hadn't read the source they were referring to they would say so.

In contrast, there are people who quote confidently, but appear to me to simply be passing on quotes someone else has dug up. I tend to give less weight to these posts, since I can't be as confident they know what they are talking about.

Here are examples of a couple of the quotes provided in this thread that aroused my curiosity as to actual source.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented." —Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

originally posted by Richard G

"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal."
--Janet Reno

 

[Nova Land]

"Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed."

--Sara Brady, Chairman, Handgun Control

Here is an even more striking example of a quote that I'd like to know the source of. I have trouble believing that Sara Brady is a socialist or interested in creating a socialist America, so I have to wonder if this is a quote by her or a quote attributed to her by political opponents.

Richard G, could you clarify this? If this is a genuine quote from Sara Brady, that is certainly something I want to know!

 

[Richard G]

"Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal."

I personaly heard, and saw Janet Reno say this before a Congressional Commitee on CSPAN. It was also reported December 10, 1993 by the Associated Press.

 

[KelvinG]

RichardG, you are way to obsessed with guns.

 

[Richard G]

Richard G, could you clarify this? If this is a genuine quote from Sara Brady, that is certainly something I want to know!

It appears to be accurate to the extent that National Educator ran the quote. The nature and accuracy of their source is a matter of some debate. However, neither Brady nor Metzenbaum appear to have denied the statement or accused the National Educator of libel.

 

[Richard G]

RichardG, you are way to obsessed with guns.

Not guns. Rights.

 

[DavidJames]

The Reno quote seems to be the "bigfoot" of the gun people. Googling about finds lots of sites with that quote but zero actual verifiable sources.

If it really was reported by the Associated Press and Reno really did say it on CPAN there will be independent verifications. Where are they?

 

[Nova Land]

[Regarding an alleged quote from Janet Reno: "Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal."]

I personaly heard, and saw Janet Reno say this before a Congressional Commitee on CSPAN. It was also reported December 10, 1993 by the Associated Press.

Thank you for clarifying the source on this somewhat. I'll try to look this one up for myself the next time I am able to get to a good library (which will be in about a week -- it's a 30 mile bike ride).

Do you recall the name of the committee she appeared before? That would be a help to me in locating a transcript of her testimony. However, even without that I should be able to find this by checking a major newspaper such as NY Times or Washington Post for December 10, 1993.

I tried to look this up online after seeing your post. Interestingly, I found it in a number of anti-gun-control sites, and they all (like you) cite "Associated Press". It may indeed be an AP story, and yet I would have expected to have seen at least one actual newspaper cited somewhere. My suspicion is that many of the people citing AP do not actually subscribe to the AP, and are passing on something they have been told -- copying each other's attribution.

[Regarding an alleged quote from Sara Brady: "Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when those who would resist us have been totally disarmed."]

It appears to be accurate to the extent that National Educator ran the quote. The nature and accuracy of their source is a matter of some debate.

National Educator? Is that the newsletter of the NEA (National Education Association) or a different newsletter? In which issue is the quote supposed to appear?

I'm not sure if the Tech library carries National Educator, but will check. I will need the date of the issue in question in order to find the quote if they do carry it. Can you provide this?

You say that the National Educator's source for the alleged quotation is "a matter of some debate." So National Educator is not the original source. Who do they claim as their source? If National Educator is your actual source, you should be able to provide that information.

Since you did not already provide the date and page number where the quote is supposed to appear, would I be correct in assuming that you do not actually have a copy of the National Educator in which the quote appears, and are repeating information found in some other source?

 

[Chaos]

I´d also like to see some evidence for the Clinton quotes RichardG has brought.
Even if that was what he thought (which is far from proven), he was/is too skillful with words to say this so obviously and bluntly. This is Slick Willy, not Dumb Dubya!

And I wonder why RichardG replaced that Hitler quote that was last in his post with a Clinton quote to a similar effect.