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
Ralph Nader
72 quotes
“This administration is not sympathetic to corporations, it is indentured to corporations.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in a news conference (3 October 1972), speaking on the Nixon Administration; reported in The Washington Post (4 October 1972), p. A2.
“The large organization is lord and manor, and most of its employees have been desensitized much as were medieval peasants who never knew they were serfs.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) first seen 1972 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ralph Nader, "The anatomy of whistleblowing" (1972), in Nader, Petkas, and Blackwell (eds.), WhistleBlowing: The Report of the Conference on Professional Responsibility, New York: Grossman Publishers, as quoted in Erik …
“The 1963 Corvair, which has some remarkable characteristics. It's one of the few cars I know that can do the bossa nova on dry pavement and the watusi on wet.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ralph Nader, An Unreasonable Man (2006) Documentary film
“Khalil Bendib is an equal-opportunity skewer. The more a subject or victim is ignored by the mass media, the more he infuriates, informs, and intensifies the reader's attention. Cartoons need to jolt. Bendib obliges page after page.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Mission Accomplished by Khalil Bendib (2007)
“The hardest thing in life is to face reality when you grow up being educated by myths”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Policy Talks@Google (2008)
“... the only difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush is the velocity with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Politics does not bother corporate power. Whoever wins, they win. Both parties represent Wall Street over Main Street. Wall Street is embedded in the federal government.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) first seen 1984 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As interviewed by Chris Hedges in "Welcome to 1984," May 14, 2016
“This could be the most serious event in American political history. Because you're no longer dealing with a rural government where most of the workers were postmen, like in the nineteenth century. You're dealing with an unstable personality who takes everything personally in terms of a bruised ego, has stated again and again that he'll lash back even if he has to get up at 3 A.M. and twitter about an overweight former Miss Universe ... and he's got his finger on the nuclear trigger, or on drones, or on, you know, aircraft carriers.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Ralph Nader, "This Could Be the Most Serious Event in History", The Big Picture RT (7:02 of 12:57), Nov. 9, 2016
“...the Democratic and Republican parties, two apparently distinct political entities feeding at the same corporate trough.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Up against the corporate government, voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers. The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The "democracy gap" in our politics and elections spells a deep sense of powerlessness by people who drop out, do not vote, or listlessly vote for the “least worst” every four years and then wonder why after every cycle the “least worst” gets worse.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Like knowing hostages, the AFL-CIO and its unions march in tandem to endorse the Democratic presidential nominees early in the primary season. They have given up their capacity for negotiation, so frightened are they of the Republicans. Meanwhile, the rank-and-file workers suffer their dwindling status in silence.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...organized labor...rushes to support the party without demanding a turn away from corporatism toward workers’ needs. This is the logic of the lesser of two evils. It tethers labor to a relentless slide deeper into the corporate power pits year after year.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“...the Democrats know that no matter how many GATTs, NAFTAs, empty OSHAs, and other betrayals...they heap on those labor leaders, they can be had because, once again, the Republicans are deemed worse.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The tired whine of 'But the Republicans are worse' will fall flat as more young Americans take charge of their future and move, with their reenergized elders, toward the Green Party and parallel civic and political movements.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must strive to become good ancestors.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The shortcomings of America's political leaders do not stop at our borders.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Unlike members of Congress, Big Business knew what the WTO agreements contained. That's because corporate lobbyists helped draft them.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Half of democracy is about just showing up.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he concentration of power in the hands of the few is common to all cultures... When a small group of people rules a society the political system is considered an oligarchy; when only money and wealth determine how a society is controlled, the political system is a plutocracy. From the standpoint of a democratic society, both oligarchy and plutocracy are inherently unjust and corrupt. ...In many ways, the majority of Americans live in a democracy of minimums, while the privileged few enjoy a plutocracy of maximums. ...[T]he dominating influence of the One Percent...”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[F]amily functions have been outsourced to business... everything is for sale, and money is power... Our elections and our governments should be... commercial-free zones; our environment, air, and water should never fall under the control of corporations or private owners. Children should not be programmed by a huckstering economy...”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]henever there have been periods when enough of the country organizes and resists, we see movements of people and communities breaking through power. Progress is made. Rights are won. Education and literacy increase. Oppression is diminished.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Concentrated power in the hands of the few really... matter[s]... if you are denied full-time employment or paid poverty wages and there are no unions to defend your interests... if you are denied affordable health care... if you are gouged by the drug industry... lack of public transit or packed highways... if you or your children... breath dirtier air and drink polluted water... if your children are receiving substandard education... are being taught to obey rather than question, think and imagine, especially when it comes to the nature of power.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“America's Founding Fathers wrote a Constitution that never once uses the words "corporation," "company," or "political parties." Their use of language reflected their antipathy toward the domineering influence of empire and big business... If "We the People" are the sole subjects of the Constitution, why is it that we are ruled by large corporations and their largely indentured servants—the Republican and Democratic Parties... "We the People" have allowed these plutocratic forces to slowly siphon away our power.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Before and after the American Revolution, there has been a continuing daily tension between contending private commercial pursuits and common civic values. ...[T]he obsessive drive for gold, money, and profit is a formidable deviation from other more important spiritual practices that strive to center community on non-market values... love, generosity, kindness, cooperation, and non-violence.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[P]ublic interest groups, consumer protection organizations, and... social networks have worked relentlessly to break through the battalions of lobbyists paid by corporate interests...”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Paradoxically, we are in a golden age of books, documentaries, and films that... expose the abuses, crimes and authoritarian essence of corporate commercialism. ...[N]ever ...have they had less impact for change.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of my all-time favorite "shake 'em up books," which is almost impossible to describe briefly, is Sam Smith's Great American Political Repair Manual.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Democratic elections require that votes are supreme, not big-money. They require contested candidacies, not a two-party duopoly that increasingly reflects the same commercial interests.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They say we have a free press, but we do not. We have a press that is indentured to advertising revenue, and they themselves are now conglomerate corporations... and five big ones control most of the circulation and viewership...”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[W]e have all these myths... about a Democratic society... [W]e have been disintegrating our Democratic institutions for over 40 years.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[A] phony standard... from Medieval England... says that you are thrown out of court if you don't have a specific interest... that usually now means an economic interest... a corporation that might lose sales, for example.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It only takes one percent or less of The People... mobilized in every Congressional District... say three or four thousand [out of an average Congressional District population]... [A]s long as they represent a majority opinion... they can control the Congress against any vested interest. We used to do it on far less... regulating the auto industry, getting through the Freedom of Information Act, which was opposed by... almost every corporate trade association, because they didn't want government information on them available to the public.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We don't need huge numbers of people. We need about one percent... spending three to five hundred hours a year, connecting with each other, opening full-time offices in every Congressional District, and focusing on just five-hundred and... thirty-five people... in the U.S. Congress... the branch that has the most power under our Constitution.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We have 206 law schools in the country. You would think they are the first responders to challenge the criminal injustice system, conditions in the prison, violation of civil rights, crushing consumer rights, and the government being taken over by corporations. It's not happening. It's like they're training technicians... lawyers to serve the powerful interests.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mike Pompeo is Secretary of State, a total warmonger, and... bigot against Arabs and Muslims, based on his own assertions when he was a member of Congress, and after that.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Lawlessness by the rich and powerful is the norm... Either they violate the law with impunity, or they make sure the law provides loopholes for them with their influence in Congress. ...They are extremists... [T]hey... have no conscience, no soul. The corporate entity is an artificial being driven maniacally by profit...”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You really have to educate your [law] students about lawlessness, otherwise they're going to graduate and just tinker with the law... The law students are so clueless, in fact, deprived about what's going on in this country in terms of the concentration and the abuse of power... [W]e have a real crisis in the legal educational institutions that breed the next generation of lawyers.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[T]he lawyers are the architects of corporate power. They're the architects of grinding responsible government into the ground and turning it into an accounts receivable, corporate welfare, ... giving these corporations immunities and privileges which we would never have as real individuals. ...They are artificial... they cannot be morally accountable like real individuals... unshielded by the corporate structure.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A judicial coup in 1886... determined that corporations were persons, for the purpose of the Constitution. ...[T]he Constitution doesn't even have the word company, corporate, or political party in it. So why are we ruled by them? You see the distortion? The only persons recognized in the Constitution are real people. It starts... with "We the People" not "we the corporations.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It first starts with an intrepid rat... that goes up to the toilet bowl of the Speaker, just as he's sitting down to do his business... Some readers who couldn't get past the first few pages... called it disgusting and upsetting, and I said, "Well, you're describing the behavior of Congress...”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The rats then... follow each other. Ten rats signal to other rats, and there's a rat infestation in the House of Representatives, and then in the Senate... [T]here's an overreaction by the members, the leaders. They don't want this to get out, that they can't even control the rats, much less the Wall Street lobbyists.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[O]ne reporter... is intrepidly meticulous and he blows the story... [A]ll the cable shows, everybody goes wild with derision as the story unfolds... [T]he overreaction is massive slaughter of the rats. They keep coming. They keep breeding... working overtime... and that is what gets people's attention about Congress.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Congress comes in, in the poles, under 15% or 12%... or even 9% now... about the lowest of any category, even the proverbial used car dealer.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People have such a low opinion of Congress that they keep sending bad members... to Washington, but [the people] withdraw... they become cynical... instead of becoming angry and moving to take control of Congress. After all, it's the sovereign power of the people... that is misused and turned against the people on behalf of Wall Street and other corporate supremacists.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Because of the massive media, you have massive public attention, the comedians, the late night talk shows, have a field day... The activists say... "This is what we've been waiting for"... [politicians] fumbling and grumbling and tripping over themselves trying to deal with the rat infestation, asking for the national security people... on orders of the White House... like... a foreign invasion.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“They would surround part of the Congress with bull horns and shout, "Resign! Resign! Resign!" ...Some of the incumbents ...just ran out of the Congress and joined the crowd.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the themes of the book is don't wait around... [with] steady mobilization. It doesn't work that way. It gives the corporation lobbies too much time to game the system. Look at the health care. It was proposed by Harry Truman in the 1940s, universal health care, and look where we're still at. ...Speed was of the essence.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In some... legislator's minds... like Mick Mulvaney... he really is mean, and he has no qualms of conscience. But I have met members of Congress... conservative Republicans, who do have qualms... John Boehner... the fictional character is Reginald Blamer, he came from a poor family of 11 children... so I have seen... people who have a public personae of ferocious oligarchy and plutocracy, but deep inside they know they're harming innocent people.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the early 60s I wanted to get auto safety bills through the Congress, so I had to go to... ... [people said he was] totally in the pocket of the business lobbyists... Because of the rumble from the people... out of Seattle and other parts of the country, Warren Magnuson put his finger to the wind. ...He became the greatest champion of consumer legislation in the Congress in American history.”
Ralph Nader (born 1934) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source