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Ben Carson Quotes
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Benjamin Solomon Carson Sr. is an American neurosurgeon, author, and politician who is the 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, under the Trump Administration. Prior to his cabinet position, he was a candidate for President of the United States in the Republican primaries in 2016.

Born in Detroit, Michigan, and a graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan Medical School, Carson has authored numerous books on his medical career and political stances. He was the subject of a television drama film in 2009.

He was the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland from 1984 until his retirement in 2013. As a pioneer in neurosurgery, Carson's achievements include performing the only successful separation of conjoined twins joined at the back of the head, pioneering the first successful neurosurgical procedure on a fetus inside the womb, performing the first completely successful separation of type-2 vertical craniopagus twins, developing new methods to treat brain-stem tumors, and reviving hemispherectomy techniques for controlling seizures. He became the youngest chief of pediatric neurosurgery in the country at age 33. He has received more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees, dozens of national merit citations, and written over 100 neurosurgical publications. In 2008, he was bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.

Carson's widely publicized speech at the 2013 National Prayer Breakfast catapulted him to conservative fame for his views on social and political issues. On May 4, 2015, he announced he was running for the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election at a rally in his hometown of Detroit. In March 2016, following the Super Tuesday primaries, he suspended his campaign and announced he would be the new national chairman of My Faith Votes, a group that encourages Christians to exercise their civic duty to vote. He then endorsed the candidacy of Donald Trump.

On March 2, 2017, Carson was confirmed by the United States Senate as the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in a 58–41 vote.

✵ 18. September 1951   •   Other names Бен Карсон, בען קארסאן, بن کارسون, ベン・カーソン, 벤 카슨
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Ben Carson: 191   quotes 18   likes

Ben Carson Quotes

“Risk played a really important role in making me the person I am.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 67

Personality

“Jesus Is All the World to Me.”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 60

World

“She was not a person who would allow the system to dictate her life.”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 18

Life , Personality

“God has opened many doors of opportunity throughout my lifetime, but I believe the greatest of those doors was allowing me to be born in the United States of America.”

Ben Carson

Source: America the Beautiful (2012), Ch. 13: 'What's Good about America'

God

“Being nice always comes back to repay us in the long run.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 199

“God would grant all of us wisdom, calm, and peace, that his presence would be in the operating room, and that his will might be done.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 20

Wisdom , God , Peace

“Occasionally I talk with people who see doctors as people who do nothing but give of themselves and never receive from anyone else – especially not from their patients. That is totally false. The longer I remain in my profession, the more I realize how much I receive from those who come to me for help.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 113

People , Help , Falseness

“The kind of job doesn't matter. The length of time on the job doesn't matter… If you work hard and do your best, you'll be recognized and move onward.”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 88

Time

“There are a group of people who would like to silence everybody and have everyone go along to get along. But that's not going to be very helpful for us in the long run in terms of solving our problems, and someone has to be courageous enough to actually stand up to the bullies.”

Ben Carson

As quoted in "Dr. Ben Carson: ‘Someone Has to Be Courageous Enough to Actually Stand Up to The Bullies’" http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/340467/dr-ben-carson-someone-has-be-courageous-enough-actually-stand-bullies-nathaniel, National Review (February 12, 2013)

People , Courage , Problem , Silence

“I've never known a case yet where worry helped.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 18

Help

“So after a while, if people won't accept your excuses, you stop looking for them.”

Ben Carson

"Conversation with Dr. Ben Carson: The Big Picture" http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/science-july-dec99-carson_09-07/, PBS NewsHour (September 7, 1999)

People

“Carol James, who is my physician's assistant and my right-hand person, frequently teases me by saying, "It's because women need only half of their brain to think as well as men. That's why you can do this operation on so many women."”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 161

Women , Men , Thinking , Personality

“But no matter what safety steps we take or what security precautions we adopt, our risk of death is not approximately – but exactly – 100 percent. There is no margin of error on the statistic.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 40

Death , Error

“You have to try, you have to do everything you can.”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 76

“You've promised that if we come to You and ask something in faith, that You'll do it.”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 58

Faith

“Evolution and creationism both require faith.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 128

Faith

“Why should I give someone else such power over my life?”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 59

Life

“Ultimately, if you accept the evolutionary theory, you dismiss ethics, you don’t have to abide by a set of moral codes, you determine your own conscience based on your own desires. You have no reason for things such as selfless love, when a father dives in to save his son from drowning. You can trash the Bible as irrelevant, just silly fables, since you believe that it does not conform to scientific thought. You can be like Lucifer, who said, “I will make myself like the Most High.””

Ben Carson

As quoted in "Evolution? No" http://archives.adventistreview.org/2004-1509/story2.html, The Adventist Review (2004)

Love

“The reason that [political correctness] is very troubling to me is that it’s the very same thing that happened to the Roman Empire. They were extremely powerful. There was no way anybody could overcome them. But these philosophers, with the long flowing white robes and the long white beards, they could wax eloquently on every subject, but nothing was right and nothing was wrong. They soon completely lost sight of who they were.”

Ben Carson

As quoted in "Ben Carson thinks “political correctness” could lead U.S. to collapse like Rome" http://www.salon.com/2014/10/15/ben_carson_thinks_political_correctness_could_lead_u_s_to_collapse_like_rome/, Salon (October 15, 2014)

Way

“Every human being experiences risks; some of the risks are common to all humans, and some are unique to the life each of us has been given to live. But I know for certain that risk – both it's shadow and its reality – has shaped my life inside and out.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 68

Life , Reality

“I want people to see me as an honest person, a person who is actually willing to express what they believe. The way I look at it, if people don't like that, I'd rather not be in office. I don't want to be in office under false pretenses, just saying things people want to hear so I can get elected.”

Ben Carson

As quoted in "Carson: I won't tell lies to get elected" http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/256687-carson-i-wont-be-silenced (2015), by Jonathan Easley, The Hill (October 12, 2015).

People , Way , Personality , Falseness

“When someone is being particularly mean and nasty, I simply think to myself, He or she used to be a cute little baby, I wonder what happened?”

Ben Carson

Source: One Nation (2014), Ch. 2: 'Political Correctness'

Thinking , Baby

“I think one of the keys to leadership is recognizing that everybody has gifts and talents. A good leader will learn how to harness those gifts toward the same goal.”

Ben Carson

As quoted in "America's Best Leaders: Benjamin Carson, Surgeon and Children's Advocate" http://www.usnews.com/news/best-leaders/articles/2008/11/19/americas-best-leaders-benjamin-carson-surgeon-and-childrens-advocate, U.S. News (November 19, 2008)

Leadership , Thinking , Learning

“I personally believe that this theory that Darwin came up with was something that was encouraged by the adversary, and it has become what is scientifically, politically correct.”

Ben Carson

As quoted in "Ben Carson: Big Bang A Fairy Tale, Theory Of Evolution Encouraged By The Devil" http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/ben-carson-big-bang-a-fairy-tale-theory-of-evolution-encoura#.scwEnmYlG, Buzzfeed News (September 22, 2015)

Personality

“You have yourself to blame.”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 63

“Once in a while, when it comes to taking risks, youthful naivete pays better dividends than do knowledge and experience.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 86

Youth , Knowledge

“God doesn't make mistakes. So if I'm supposed to die, there's a very good reason for it. I'm not going to question him. I'm just going to enjoy all these beautiful things that God created.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 168

God , Beauty , Question

“It is important to call on God to intervene in our life, especially when we reach the point where we ourselves have become helpless.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 244

Life , God

“So I'm going to say my prayers tonight before I go to sleep. I hope you'll do the same. I believe if we do that, we'll all have less to worry about tomorrow.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 18

Hope , Sleep

“Knowledge make us valuable. When we have knowledge that other people do not readily have, somebody need us. It does not matter what we look like, or where we came from, if we have something that others have a need for.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 212

People , Knowledge

“Odds that you will die at some point in your life: 1 in 1. Thus, you might say the greatest, most significant, and universal risk factor in death is being born. This implies that it really isn't very helpful to approach the subject of risk by focusing on how we might die; rather, it's far wise to consider how we should live and what risk we will live with.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 67

Life , Death , Universe , Help

“The point is, we can decry the dangers we face or ignore them or even allow ourselves to be paralyzed by fear.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 236

Fear

“Faith, by definition, is a risk.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 125

Faith

“What is important – what I consider success – is that we make a contribution to our world.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 261

World , Success

“God loves us all, and all of us are equal in God's sight.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 56

Love , God

“You know Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery, and it is in a way, it is slavery in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government, and it was never about health care. It was about control.”

Ben Carson

As quoted in "Ben Carson: Obamacare worst thing ‘since slavery’" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2013/10/11/ben-carson-obamacare-worst-thing-since-slavery/, Washington Post (October 11, 2013)

Health , Way , Thinking

“Like an adventure who was asked why he climbed the mountain and answered, “Because it's there!” I think our culture has developed this intense love-hate relationship with risk, in part because it's always there.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 48

Love , Hate , Mountain , Thinking

“Not prejudge others – not decide their value before knowing them.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 197

“Rather than reacting to every risk we hear and see, we should make an effort to discern which ones we can do something about.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 58

Effort

“I would like people to recognize in looking at my story that the person who has the most to do with what happens to you is you. It's not the environment, it's not the other people who were there trying to help you or trying to stop you. It's what you decide to do and how much effort you put behind it.”

Ben Carson

"Interview: Dr. Benjamin Carson Talks Race, Politics and Life After Medicine" http://www.christianpost.com/news/interview-dr-benjamin-carson-talks-race-politics-and-life-after-medicine-91474/, The Christian Post (March 8, 2013)

People , Effort , Help , Personality

“Do not underestimate the importance of feeling special.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 61

Feeling

“Not everyone has to be a high-powered neurosurgeon to add significantly to the equation that brings about success here.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 100

Success

“I now had enough faith not only to believe there were answer, but to feel certain that those answers would become apparent at some point in the future.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 34

Faith , Feeling , Future

“We create our own destiny by the way we do things. We have to take advantage of opportunities and be responsible for our choices.”

Ben Carson

Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story (1990), p. 63

Way

“When we have done our best, we also have to learn that we still need to rely on God. Our best – no matter how good – is incomplete if we leave God out of the picture.”

Ben Carson

Source: Think Big (1996), p. 146

God , Learning

“I believe we have this enormous brains with the ability to process so much information for a purpose – because we were made in God's image, not in the image of an amoeba.”

Ben Carson

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 130

God