Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Bill Clinton
90 quotes
“I feel your pain.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to AIDS activist Bob Rafsky at the Laura Belle nightclub in Manhattan (March 27, 1992)
“End welfare as we know it.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement during 1992 US presidential campaign [http://www.cnn.com/US/9608/22/welfare/ [http://clinton2.nara.gov/WH/New/html/19990803.html
“When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two -- and didn't like it -- and didn't inhale and never tried inhaling again.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Television interview (March 1992), quoted in the New York Times (31 March 1992) realone audio file
“Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First inaugural address (January 20, 1993), Washington, D.C.
“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 (born 1946) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: First inaugural address (January 20, 1993), Washington, D.C.
“Let me tell you something -- wait a minute. You know one things that's wrong with this country? Everybody gets a chance to have their fair say. My budget did more to fight AIDS than any in history, and we're having to put up with this. (Applause.) Tell them to let me talk. (Applause.) If you want to give a speech -- go out there and raise your own crowd. We'll be glad to listen to you. (Applause.) So there were those -- (interruption) -- I'll make you a deal. I'll ignore them if you will. (Applause.)”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1993 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Response to hecklers, courtyard of Philadelphia City Hall (May 28, 1993). Remarks at City Hall in Philadelphia, May 28, 1993
“The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1995 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks at the Dedication of the Thomas J. Dodd Archives and Research Center in Storrs, Connecticut, October 15, 1995
“The last time I checked, the Constitution said, 'of the people, by the people and for the people.' That's what the Declaration of Independence says.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From a campaign speech given in California. Quoted in Investor's Business Daily October 25, 1996
“Our rich texture of racial, religious and political diversity will be a Godsend in the 21st century. Great rewards will come to those who can live together, learn together, work together, forge new ties that bind together.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Second inaugural address (January 20, 1997)
“We know we’ve got about six years to turn this juvenile crime thing around. And my successors will not be giving speeches about the wonderful opportunities of the global economy; they’ll be trying to keep body and soul together for people on the streets of these cities.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts; as quoted by Allison Mitchell, “Clinton Urges Campaign Against Youth Crime”, The New York Times, (February 20, 1997), Section B, Page 9
“We know that if this can be done in Boston, it can be done in every community, in every neighborhood of every size in the United States. And we ask the United States Congress to do what you've done here in Massachusetts: cross all party lines, throw politics away, throw the speeches in the trash can, join hands. Let's do what works and make America the safe place it has to be.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address at the Boston campus of the University of Massachusetts; as quoted by Allison Mitchell, “Clinton Urges Campaign Against Youth Crime”, The New York Times, (February 20, 1997), Section B, Page 9
“Abigail, do you favor the United States Army abolishing the affirmative action program that produced Colin Powell? Yes or no? Yes or no?”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1997 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In response to a statement by Abigail Thernstrom, Remarks in a Townhall Meeting on Race at the E.J. Thomas Performing Arts Hall at the University of Akron, Akron, Ohio (December 3, 1997). "Remarks in a Townhall Meeting …
“Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. 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, and I need to go back to work for the American people.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks on the After-School Child Care Initiative, Roosevelt Room, White House Remarks on the After-School Child Care Initiative (January 26, 1998)
“Next, we must help parents protect their children from the gravest health threat that they face -- an epidemic of teen smoking, spread by multimillion dollar marketing campaigns. I challenge Congress -- let's pass bipartisan, comprehensive legislation that will improve public health, protect our tobacco farmers and change the way tobacco companies do business forever. 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 (born 1946) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1998 State of the Union Address (January 27, 1998)
“No one wants to get this matter behind us more than I do—except maybe all the rest of the American people.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement on the Monica Lewinsky affair, at Rose Garden press conference (July 31, 1998)
“It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If the—if he—if 'is' means is and never has been, that is not—that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement. ... Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Lewinsky, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Grand jury testimony (August 17, 1998), answering questions about his attorney's description of an affidavit by Monica Lewinsky
“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 (born 1946) first seen 1998 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Televised address on August 17, 1998 CNN transcript
“Whether our ancestors came here on the Mayflower, on slave ships, whether they came to Ellis Island or LAX in Los Angeles, whether they came yesterday or walked this land a thousand years ago our great challenge for the 21st century is to find a way to be One America. We can meet all the other challenges if we can go forward as One America.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: State of the Union Address (January 19, 1999)
“A hundred years from tonight, another American president will stand in this place and report on the State of the Union. He—or she—(applause)—he or she will look back on a 21st century shaped in so many ways by the decisions we make here and now. So let it be said of us then that we were thinking not only of our time, but of their time; that we reached as high as our ideals; that we put aside our divisions and found a new hour of healing and hopefulness; that we joined together to serve and strengthen the land we love.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: State of the Union Address (January 19, 1999)
“We want to live forever, and we're getting there.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Millennium evening at the White House (October 1999)
“(George H. 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. And you know what else? He doesn't have Al Gore, and I do.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Place Called Hope," speech to the 1992 Democratic National Convention accepting the Democratic nomination for President (July 16, 1992)
“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 (born 1946) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Place Called Hope" (July 16, 1992)
“I end tonight where it all began for me: I still believe in a place called Hope.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 1992 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Place Called Hope" (July 16, 1992)
“Shakespeare wrote, Einstein thought, Atatürk built.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Address to the International Trade Organization, as quoted in Hellenic Resources Net (January 5, 2000)
“We are fortunate to be alive at this moment in history.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: State of the Union address (January 27, 2000)
“You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That's a good-looking mummy.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Yesterday is yesterday. If we try to recapture it, we will only lose tomorrow.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“History has shown us, that you can't allow the mass extermination of people, and just sit by and watch it happen.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let me tell you what the facts are. Now, we had a hard time getting those facts into these debates, because they're so inconvenient for the other side. And I admire that about the Republicans: The evidence does not faze them. ... They are not bothered at all by the facts. And you've got to kind of give it to them. ... They know what they're for.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2000 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Remarks at a Reception for Representative Martin T. Meehan in Lowell, Massachusetts (20 October 2000)
“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 (born 1946) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At a Labour Party conference in the UK, quoted in The Independent. "Clinton urges caution over Iraq as Bush is granted war powers" (3 October 2002)
“Because Israel believes, when it comes right down to it America is the only big country that cares whether they live or die. That's why I can say, give up the West Bank, because the Israelis knew that if the Iraqi or the Iranian army came across the Jordan river, I would personally grab a rifle, get in a ditch, and fight and die, and I would.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2002 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At a benefit dinner hosted by the Canadian Jewish Congress in Toronto, Ontario, 2002 CNN Transcript
“You should have disagreements with your leaders and your colleagues, but if it becomes immediately a question of questioning people's motives, and if immediately you decide that somebody who sees a whole new situation differently than you must be a bad person and somehow twisted inside, we are not going to get very far in forming a more perfect union.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (May 21, 2004)
“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 (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Statement (May 21, 2004)
“I felt like a pickle stepping into history.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: During the unveiling of his official portrait in the East Room of the White House (June 14, 2004)
“People like you always help the far-right, because you like to hurt people, and you like to talk about how bad people are and all their personal failings.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the emphasis in the news media on the Starr investigation and the Lewinsky affair (June 22, 2004) Panorama interview
“You know, I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over. I don't believe he went in there for oil. We didn't go in there for imperialist or financial reasons. We went in there because he bought the Wolfowitz-Cheney analysis that the Iraqis would be better off, we could shake up the authoritarian Arab regimes in the Middle East, and our leverage to make peace between the Palestinians and Israelis would be increased.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Time, June 2004
“Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In support of John Kerry at the Democratic National Convention, Boston, MA, July 26, 2004
“What are the needs of the world? What can I do that won't be done if I don't do it?”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: ABC Primetime Live interview during opening of his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., November 2004
“What we have to do now is not to forget these people and places when all the cameras are not there. I think that's the most important message I can say to the American people right now.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: While touring tsunami-devastated areas with his presidential predecessor, George H. W. Bush, February 2005
“We need a steady stream of cash. The American people have been uncommonly generous.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: While touring tsunami-devastated areas with his presidential predecessor, George H. W. Bush, February 20, 2005
“[Iraq is] not Vietnam, we have a government that has a support of the majority of the people.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Late Show with David Letterman, June 16, 2005
“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 (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I think it's very interesting that all the conservative Republicans who now say I didn't do enough claimed that I was too obsessed with Bin Laden. All of President Bush's neo-cons thought I was too obsessed with Bin Laden. They had no meetings on Bin Laden for nine months after I left office. All the right-wingers who now say I didn't do enough, said I did too much—same people.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Chris Wallace, FOX News Sunday, September 24, 2006. Transcript: William Jefferson Clinton on 'FOX News Sunday'
“[Asked if he thought he did enough to get Bin Laden] "No, because I didn't get him. But at least I tried. That's the difference [between] me and some, including all the right-wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try. They did not try. I tried.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Chris Wallace, FOX News Sunday, September 24, 2006. Transcript: William Jefferson Clinton on 'FOX News Sunday'
“So I tried and failed. When I failed, I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke, who got demoted. So you did Fox's bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me. ... And you've got that little smirk on your face and you think you're so clever. But I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it. But I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Chris Wallace, FOX News Sunday, September 24, 2006. Transcript: William Jefferson Clinton on 'FOX News Sunday'
“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 (born 1946) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: At an event sponsored by the Center for American Progress, October 18, 2006
“I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts, and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can't be judged only by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgements make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes only response to pain.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: My Life (2004), page 15
“Private citizens have more power to do public good and solve common problems than ever before in human history.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Made that statement during a conference in Ottawa, Canada, in March 2006. He concluded that a trend of international goodwill has been developing since the 2004 tsunami and said, with a hint of optimism, that the world …
“I have met all the most gifted people in our generation and you're the best.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To Hillary Rodham Clinton when they both attended Yale University, repeated in a 2007 campaign speech.
“Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”
Bill Clinton (born 1946) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 26, 2008