Bill Clinton

Let us all take more responsibility, not only for ourselves and our families but for our
communities and our country.
– Bill Clinton

Politics gives guys so much power that they tend to behave badly around women.
And I hope I never get into that.
– Bill Clinton

Being President is like being the groundskeeper in a cemetery: There are a lot of people under
you, but none of them are listening.
– Bill Clinton

The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants
and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who
embrace peace and those who would destroy it. Between those who look to the future and
those who cling to the past. Between those who open their arms and those who are
determined to clench their fists.
– Bill Clinton

The economy has produced 6.1 million jobs since I became President, and if Michael Jordan
comes back to the Bulls, it will be 6,100,001 jobs.
– Bill Clinton

If President Reagan could be an actor and become president, maybe I could become an
actor. I’ve got a good pension. I can work for cheap.
– Bill Clinton

The problem with ideology is, if you’ve got an ideology, you’ve already got your mind made
up. You know all the answers and that makes evidence irrelevant and arguments a waste of
time. You tend to govern by assertion and attacks.
– Bill Clinton

Every time Bush talks about trust it makes chills run up and down my spine. The way he has
trampled on the truth is a travesty of the American political system.
– Bill Clinton

Let’s do what it takes to bring teen smoking down. Let’s raise the price of cigarettes by up to
$1.50 a pack over the next 10 years with penalties on the tobacco industry if it keeps
marketing to our children.
– Bill Clinton

When I met her more than 35 years ago, I thought Hillary had the best combination of mind
and heart I’d ever seen – and I still do. But it’s going to take every dollar to make sure that
Americans get to know the real Hillary, like I do.
– Bill Clinton

Yesterday is yesterday. If we try to recapture it, we will only lose tomorrow.
– Bill Clinton

When we got real tough on visas – because one out of a zillion of them might have a bomb –
we lost a lot of brains. We might have dodged a bomb but we lost a lot of brains.
– Bill Clinton

A preemptive action today, however well-justified, may come back with unwelcome
consequences in the future. And because… I’ve done this. I’ve ordered these kinds of actions.
I don’t care how precise your bombs and your weapons are, when you set them off, innocent
people will die.
– Bill Clinton, 2002

Criticism is part of the lifeblood of democracy. No one is right all the time. But we should
remember that there is a big difference between criticizing a policy or a politician and
demonizing the government that guarantees our freedoms and the public servants who
enforce our laws.
– Bill Clinton

If ever there comes a time when everyone you vote for wins and they do everything you
think they should do, there will still be a gap between what is and what ought to be.
– Bill Clinton

When I took office, only high energy physicists had ever heard of what is called the Worldwide
Web. Now even my cat has its own page.
– Bill Clinton

The era of big government is over.
– Bill Clinton, 1996

And I think America, if we’re ever going to truly defeat terror without changing the character
of our own country or compromising the future of our children, has got to not only say,
“Okay, I want to shoulder my responsibilities, I want to create my share of opportunities,” but
we have to find a way to define the future in terms of a humanity that goes beyond our
country, that goes beyond any particular race, that goes beyond any particular religion.
– Bill Clinton

There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
– Bill Clinton

My grandfather just had a grade-school education. But in that country store he taught me
more about equality in the eyes of the Lord than all my professors at Georgetown; more
about the intrinsic worth of every individual than all the philosophers at Oxford; and he taught
me more about the need for equal justice than all the jurists at Yale Law School.
– Bill Clinton

Sometimes I feel like the fire hydrant looking at a pack of dogs. For six years I had declined
to tell those kinds of jokes, because I have been told it is not presidential. But I feel kind of
outdoorsy today.
– Bill Clinton

What are the needs of the world? What can I do that won’t be done if I don’t do it?
– Bill Clinton

If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better
person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit,
never quit, never quit.
– Bill Clinton

Since I don’t have access to the White House pastry chef anymore, it’s done wonders for my
figure.
– Bill Clinton

America just works better when more people have a chance to live their dreams.
– Bill Clinton

If one candidate is appealing to your fears, and the other one’s appealing to your hopes, you’d
better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope!
– Bill Clinton

I don’t know whether it’s the finest public housing in America or the crown jewel of the
American penal system.
– Bill Clinton, on the White House

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. That is, when we set up this
country, abuse of people by government was a big problem. So if you read the Constitution,
it’s rooted in the desire to limit the ability of government’s ability to mess with you, because
that was a huge problem. It can still be a huge problem.
– Bill Clinton

Frankly, I’m fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values.
Our families have values. But our government doesn’t.
– Bill Clinton

The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.
– Bill Clinton

Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.
– Bill Clinton

For every one person who said they voted for Hamas because they wanted to see Israel
destroyed, there were one hundred who said they just wanted a change and better life.
– Bill Clinton

We’ve gotten to where we’ve nearly “them”ed ourselves to death. Them and them and them.
But this is America. There is no them; there’s only us.
– Bill Clinton

We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common
humanity matters more.
– Bill Clinton

But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I’m going to
say this again. I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told
anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false.
– Bill Clinton

Indeed, I did have a relationship with Miss Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was
wrong. It constituted a critical lapse in judgment and a personal failure on my part for which I
am solely and completely responsible. But I told the grand jury today and I say to you now
that at no time did I ask anyone to lie, to hide or destroy evidence or to take any other
unlawful action.
– Bill Clinton

If you want to live like a Republican, vote like a Democrat.
– Bill Clinton

I may not have been the greatest President, but I’ve had the most fun eight years.
– Bill Clinton

We think it’s important to help poor people in the world but we’re going to suck up 80 percent
of the savings in the world, which could be going to invest somewhere else because we think
tax cuts for people who make a million dollars a year are more important.
– Bill Clinton

When our memories outweigh our dreams, it is then that we become old.
– Bill Clinton

If a politician doesn’t wanna get beat up, he shouldn’t run for office. If a football player
doesn’t want to get tackled or want the risk of an a occasional clip he shouldn’t put the pads
on.
– Bill Clinton

You can put wings on a pig, but you don’t make it an eagle.
– Bill Clinton

All America loses when any person is denied or forced out of a job because of sexual
orientation. Being gay, the last time I thought about it, seemed to have nothing to do with
the ability to read a balance book, fix a broken bone, or change a spark plug.
– Bill Clinton

We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.
– Bill Clinton

Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.
– Bill Clinton

People are more impressed by the power of our example rather than the example of our
power.
– Bill Clinton

George W. Bush won’t take the lead in protecting the environment and creating new jobs in
environmental technologies for the 21st century, but I will.
– Bill Clinton

Posterity is the world to come; the world for whom we hold our ideals, from whom we have
borrowed our planet, and to whom we bear sacred responsibility. We must do what America
does best: Offer more opportunity to all and demand responsibility from all.
– Bill Clinton