Senator Kerry Quotes (72 Quotes)

I saw how different life was on different sides of the same city. I saw the fear in the eyes of people who were not free. I saw the gratitude of people toward the United States for all that we had done. I felt goosebumps as I got off a military train and heard the Army band strike up Stars and Stripes Forever.

It is impossible to put into words the quiet strength and incredible courage Dana Reeve demonstrated in the way she lived her life. With Chris, she gave voice to a movement to find life-saving cures and promote medical research, and when she lost her inspiration and love she didnt stop the fight. Only days after Chris death she continued to give hope to millions of Americans. She was an inspiration to me and to us all. Chris was Americas superhero, and Dana became our hero, too.

We can no longer allow Americas dependence on foreign oil to compromise our energy security. Instead, we must invest in inventing new ways to power our cars and our economy. Ill put my faith in American science and ingenuity any day before I depend on Saudi Arabia.

Its hard to believe that in the greatest democracy in the world, we need legislation to prevent the government from writing and paying for the news.

Politics has always been the art of the possible. Today it's too often the art of the probable - tinkering around the edges without any greater vision, without a sense of optimism and imagination.

We need to guarantee equal rights and civil rights and say that, here in America, workers have the right to organize - women have the right to choose - and justice belongs to everyone regardless of race or gender or sexual orientation.

The hope is there. The sun is rising. Our best days are yet to come.

Were busy exporting Democracy abroad to Afghanistan and Iraq, which is fine, but what we really need to do is a better job at making our Democracy work right here at home.

In this remarkable time for the world, I refuse to believe it's time to stop believing in the possibilities of our remarkable country. I refuse to accept the downsizing of the American Dream. I refuse to bet against American entrepreneurial spirit and American ingenuity.The competition's tough, and it requires us to be tougher - tough-minded, never hard hearted.

This Veterans Day, my mind returns again and again to a flight I took home from Baghdad in August -- and an unforgettable reminder of the obligation we have to all who serve the country we love. As we boarded the C-130, I looked into the cargo hold and saw a simple, aluminum coffin with a small American flag draped over it. We were bringing another American soldier home to his family and final resting place.

We're in a battle for our lives for things that really matter to us. There's a shell game going on like I've never seen before.

I will not lay down and put this narrow, stubborn agenda ahead of our families, ahead of our Constitution, and ahead of our values. We are a proud nation that respects the rights of the minority, values the separation of church and state, and believes in honesty and personal responsibility.

There can never be any excuse for sacrificing our childrens futures to keep corporate tax loopholes and tax giveaways to millionaires. If we cant put our children first, who can we put first If we cant put our kids first, what does it say about our nation

But I can tell you what I believe When tens of thousands of innocent souls have perished in Darfur-when 11 million children are without health insurance-when our colossal debt subjects our economic future to the whims of Asian bankers-no one can tell me that faith demands this Senate spend its time arguing over a handful of judges. No one with those priorities can use my faith to intimidate me.

with less credibility on Iraq than Vice President Cheney.

There is no greater breach of the public trust than knowingly misleading the country into war. In a democracy, we simply cannot tolerate the abuse of this trust by the government.

While we must remain determined to defeat terrorism, it isn't only terrorism we are fighting. It's the beliefs that motivate terrorists. A new ideology of hatred and intolerance has arisen to challenge America and liberal democracy

I defended him John McCain in those hearings when some stupid-ass right-wing idiot accused him of being the Manchurian Candidate, that somehow the Vietnamese had brainwashed him. This is the most unbelievably callous, degrading, nonsensical piece of crap I've ever heard in my life, coming from some chicken hawk out there, to hurl at somebody who spent as long as he did being tortured and standing up for his country, and caring about it as much as he did. It's incredible that people would behave like that, absolutely stunning.

I figured out Karl Rove's political strategy -- make gas so expensive, no Democrats can afford to go to the polls.

We believe that what matters most is not narrow appeals masquerading as values, but the shared values that show the true face of America not narrow values that divide us, but the shared values that unite us family, faith, hard work, opportunity and respon

When you see Washington consistently turning a blind eye to suffering, dont sit back and apathetically blame indifference. The loudest voices may be delivering the worst messages today, but history shows that grass-roots energy has the power to change anything when that energy is focused toward justice

And Ill tell you, few things make me more angry than some out of touch Washington politician saying that Head Start doesnt work. Thats a flat out lie and its disrespectful to you and the tens of thousands of Americans who make this program work for children every single day.

And whatever our faith -- whatever our faith, one belief should bind us all The measure of our character is our willingness to give of ourselves for others and for our country.

When Bush had an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden, he took his focus off of him, outsourced the job to Afghan warlords and bin Laden escaped.

It is time, as a matter of pride, as well as a matter of national security, for the United States of America to lead the world in the energy revolution, and not lag behind Japan or Germany

Iran has made a dangerous and silly decision of confronting not just the U.S. government but the entire international community.

Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious. Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate.

You can be certain and be wrong.

I refuse to stand by while our democracy is trampled by politicians more concerned about amassing power than helping the people who sent them to Washington in the first place.

In the middle of the cavernous cargo hold was a simple, aluminum coffin with a small American flag draped over it. We were bringing another American soldier, just killed, home to his family and final resting place. The starkness of his coffin in the center of the hold, the silence except for the din of the engines, was a real time cold reminder of the consequences of decisions for which we Senators share responsibility.

Still, year after year strong mercury rules fail in Washington under pressure from corporate interests. Why Not because the risks of mercury poisoning arent real. No, lobbyists for the big industries just say they cant afford to make changes.

There the Bush Administration has offered only a merry go-round policy. They got up on their high horse, whooped and hollered, rode around in circles, and ended right back where they'd started.

Well, you know, when I talked about the 87 billion, I made a mistake in how I talk about the war. But the president made a mistake in invading Iraq. Which is worse

Remember the hours after September 11th when we came together as one to answer the attack against our homeland. We drew strength when our firefighters ran up stairs and risked their lives so that others might live when rescuers rushed into smoke and fire at the Pentagon when the men and women of Flight 93 sacrificed themselves to save our nation's Capitol when flags were hanging from front porches all across America, and strangers became friends. It was the worst day we have ever seen, but it brought out the best in all of us.

The Senate and the country need Senators of courage who are prepared to make their mark on history by standing with past profiles in courage, and defending not party, not partisanship, but defending principle and democracy itself.

I believe that when you know something's going wrong, you make it right. That's what I learned in Vietnam. When I came back from that war I saw that it was wrong. Some people don't like the fact that I stood up to say no, but I did

The world today has a strong democratic core shaped by American ingenuity, sacrifice, and spirit. But on the periphery are many unstable and dangerous places, where terrorists seek to impose a medieval dark age. As we learned so brutally and so personally, we do face a new threat. But we also face a renewed choice - between isolation in a perilous world, which I believe is impossible in any event, and engagement to shape a safer world which is the urgent imperative of our time.

Great physicians and nurses, skilled, caring and unparalleled in their training, intervened in my life and probably saved it. I was lucky but other Americans are not. It is time to speak again and stand again for the ideal that in the richest nation ever on this planet, it is wrong for 41 million Americans, most of them in working families, to worry at night and wake up in the morning without the basic protection of health insurance.

Its a sorry statement about how broken Washington is that we could not take advantage of this unique and sad moment in history and enact serious lobbying reform. We owed it to the people who sent us to Washington to root out corruption, and the Senate turned its back on a golden opportunity today.

America now stands as the world's foremost power. We should be proud Not since the age of the Romans have one people achieved such preeminence. But we are not Romans we do not seek an empire. We are Americans, trustees of a vision and a heritage that comm

Our purpose now is to reclaim democracy itself. We are here to affirm that when Americans stand up and speak their minds and say America can do better, that is not a challenge to patriotism it is the heart and soul of patriotism.

Social Security is truly a test of our values as Americans. Social Security is a fundamental promise that lifts half of our seniors out of poverty and helps millions of disabled Americans, widows and orphans. We owe Americans a better debate than we're having today. It's about time we do everything we can to keep the promise of Social Security.

I wish President Bush knew better than to dishonor America's veterans by playing the politics of fear and smear on Veterans Day. This administration misled a nation into war by cherry-picking intelligence and stretching the truth beyond recognition.

Did the administration go beyond what even the flawed intelligence would support in making the case for war.

Washington is broken. It's not unlike a classroom in school, where the kids have gotten unruly and nobody's calling them to order.

Our Founding Fathers would shudder to see how easily forces outside the mainstream now seem to effortlessly push some Senate leaders toward conduct the American people don't want from their elected leaders Abusing power. Inserting the government into our private lives. Injecting religion into debates about public policy. Jumping through hoops to ingratiate themselves to their partys base, while step by step, day by day, real problems that keep American families up at night fall by the wayside here in Washington.

This is deeply disturbing. Congress provided loans to help businesses hurt by the Sept. 11 attacks, not to be used as an accounting gimmick to cover up this administration's failure to provide for small businesses.

Values are not just words, values are what we live by. They're about the causes that we champion and the people we fight for.

The Administrations willingness to consistently abandon the truth has done great damage. Americans are less willing to listen less likely to trust or take anything that is said in Washington seriously.

It's the Bush administration and Washington Republicans who are addicted to oil, and this administration refuses to break the dependence that undermines our economy and threatens our security.