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Bill Clinton Quotes
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William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the presidency, he was the Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, and again from 1983 to 1992. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideologically a New Democrat and many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy.

Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas and attended Georgetown University, the University of Oxford, and Yale Law School. He met Hillary Rodham at Yale and married her in 1975. After graduating from Yale, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as the Attorney General of Arkansas, serving from 1977 to 1979. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in 1992, defeating incumbent Republican opponent George H. W. Bush. At age 46, he became the third-youngest president and the first from the Baby Boomer generation.

Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement, but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. In the 1994 elections, the Republican Party won unified control of the Congress for the first time in 40 years. In 1996, Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second full term. Clinton passed welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as financial deregulation measures, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for matters related to a scandal that involved White House employee Monica Lewinsky. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 and proceeded to complete his term in office. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus, the first such surplus since 1969. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, signed the Iraq Liberation Act in opposition to Saddam Hussein, and participated in the 2000 Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process.

Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U.S. president since World War II, and he has continually received high ratings in public opinion polls of U.S. presidents. Since leaving office, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address international causes, such as the prevention of AIDS and global warming. He has remained active in politics by campaigning for Democratic candidates, including his wife's presidential campaigns and Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. In 2004, Clinton published his autobiography, My Life. In 2009, Clinton was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti and after the 2010 Haiti earthquake, he teamed with George W. Bush to form the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

✵ 19. August 1946
Bill Clinton photo
Bill Clinton: 99   quotes 6   likes

Bill Clinton Quotes

“There are clear, achievable, affordable responses to our challenges. But we won’t get to them if America makes the wrong choice in this election. That’s why you should elect her. And you should elect her because she’ll never quit when the going gets tough. She’ll never quit on you.”

Bill Clinton

2010s, (July 26, 2016)

“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

Remarks at a Reception for Representative Martin T. Meehan in Lowell, Massachusetts (20 October 2000) http://www.govrecords.org/pd30oc00-statement-on-congressional-action-on-the-foreign-3.html
2000s

Time

“You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That's a good-looking mummy.”

Bill Clinton

Looking at "Juanita," a newly discovered Incan mummy on display at the National Geographic museum
2000s

“You know, we can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans to legitimately own handguns and rifles -- it's something I strongly support -- we can't be so fixated on that that we are unable to think about the reality of life that millions of Americans face on streets that are unsafe, under conditions that no other nation—no other nations—has permitted to exist. And at some point, I still hope that the leadership of the National Rifle Association will go back to doing what it did when I was a boy and which made me want to be a lifetime member because they put out valuable information about hunting and marksmanship and safe use of guns. But just to know of the conditions we face today in a lot of our cities and other places in this country and the enormous threat to public safety is amazing.”

Bill Clinton

Remarks and a Question-and-Answer Session at the Adult Learning Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=46264, March 1, 1993
1990s

Life , Hope , Boy , Support

“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

Statement http://www.ur.ku.edu/News/04N/MayNews/May28/transcript.html (May 21, 2004)
2000s

People , Motivation , Question , Personality

“No one wants to get this matter behind us more than I do—except maybe all the rest of the American people.”

Bill Clinton

Statement on the Monica Lewinsky affair, at Rose Garden press conference http://clinton3.nara.gov/WH/New/html/19980731-26849.html (July 31, 1998)
1990s

People

“In the years ahead, I will never hold a position higher or a covenant more sacred than that of President of the United States. But there is no title I will wear more proudly than that of citizen.”

Bill Clinton

2000s, Farewell address (18 January 2001)

“I married my best friend. I was still in awe after more than four years of being around her at how smart and strong and loving and caring she was. And I really hoped that her choosing me and rejecting my advice to pursue her own career was a decision she would never regret.”

Bill Clinton

2010s, (July 26, 2016)

Love , Hope , Decision , Strong

“Someone should tell him that part of the art of politics is smiling when you feel like you’re swallowing a turd.”

Bill Clinton

To Alastair Campbell on David Trimble according to Campbell's diaries, The Blair Years (2007) http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=XAUVWij78oQC&pg=PA320&lpg=PA320&dq=%22Someone+should+tell+him+that+part+of+the+art+of+politics+is+smiling+when+you+feel+like+you%E2%80%99re+swallowing+a+turd%22&source=bl&ots=NeSrq9ZCGr&sig=hXsgQneQqkODxOnpvNE1yWfmPto&hl=en&sa=X&ei=DSWBUriUFI6jhgfd9YDYCQ&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=%22Someone%20should%20tell%20him%20that%20part%20of%20the%20art%20of%20politics%20is%20smiling%20when%20you%20feel%20like%20you%E2%80%99re%20swallowing%20a%20turd%22&f=false
Attributed

Smile , Art , Feeling , Parting

“History has shown us, that you can't allow the mass extermination of people, and just sit by and watch it happen.”

Bill Clinton

On the Bosnian war Time Magazine http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,981548-1,00.html
2000s

People , History

“Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here.”

Bill Clinton

January 26, 2008 http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/bubba-obama-is.html
2000s

“We want to live forever, and we're getting there.”

Bill Clinton

Millennium evening http://www.rand.org/scitech/stpi/ourfuture/Rosetta/millennium.html at the White House (October 1999)
1990s

“We need a steady stream of cash. The American people have been uncommonly generous.”

Bill Clinton

While touring tsunami-devastated areas with his presidential predecessor, George H. W. Bush, February 20, 2005[citation needed]
2000s

People

“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

From a campaign speech given in California. Quoted in Investor's Business Daily October 25, 1996
1990s

People , Time

“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

"A Place Called Hope" (July 16, 1992)
1990s, A Place Called Hope (16 July 1992)

Education , School , Justice , Law

“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

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). "http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=53654 Remarks in a Townhall Meeting on Race in Akron]," December 3, 1997.
1990s

“We are fortunate to be alive at this moment in history.”

Bill Clinton

State of the Union address (January 27, 2000)
2000s

History

“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

First inaugural address (January 20, 1993), Washington, D.C.
1990s

World , Democracy , Envy

“If you believe in making change from the bottom up, if you believe the measure of change is how many people’s lives are better, you know it’s hard and some people think it’s boring. Speeches like this are fun. Actually doing the work is hard. So people say, well, we need to change. She’s been around a long time, she sure has, and she’s sure been worth every single year she’s put into making people’s lives better.”

Bill Clinton

2010s, (July 26, 2016)

People , Thinking , Change , Time

“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

Interview with Time Magazine, June 2004
2000s

Peace , Thinking , Waiting

“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

Interview with Chris Wallace, FOX News Sunday, September 24, 2006. Transcript: William Jefferson Clinton on 'FOX News Sunday' http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215397,00.html
2000s

People , Thinking

“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

1998 State of the Union Address (January 27, 1998)
1990s

Children , Health , Penalty , Way

“She loved her teaching and she got frustrated when one of her students said, well, what do you expect, I’m just from Arkansas. She said, don’t tell me that, you’re as smart as anybody, you’ve just got to believe in yourself and work hard and set high goals. She believed that anybody could make it.”

Bill Clinton

2010s, (July 26, 2016)

Love

“The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.”

Bill Clinton

Remarks at the Dedication of the Thomas J. Dodd Archives and Research Center in Storrs, Connecticut http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=50654&st=tyranny&st1=destruction, October 15, 1995
1990s

Truth , Forgetting

“The loss of trust is paralyzing.”

Bill Clinton

Presidential Leadership speech http://www.c-span.org/video/?326958-1/presidents-clinton-george-w-bush-leadership (9 July 2015).
2010s

Loss

“If you win elections on the theory that government is always bad and will mess up a two-car parade a real change-maker represents a real threat. So your only option is to create a cartoon, a cartoon alternative, then run against the cartoon. Cartoons are two- dimensional, they’re easy to absorb. Life in the real world is complicated and real change is hard. And a lot of people even think it’s boring.”

Bill Clinton

2010s, (July 26, 2016)

Life , People , World , Cars

“If you love this country, you’re working hard, you’re paying taxes and you’re obeying the law and you’d like to become a citizen, you should choose immigration reform over somebody that wants to send you back. If you’re a Muslim and you love America and freedom and you hate terror, stay here and help us win and make a future together. We want you. If you’re a young African American disillusioned and afraid, we saw in Dallas how great our police officers can be, help us build a future where nobody is afraid to walk outside, including the people that wear blue to protect our future.”

Bill Clinton

2010s, (July 26, 2016)

Love , Hate , People , Law

“[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

Interview with Chris Wallace, FOX News Sunday, September 24, 2006. Transcript: William Jefferson Clinton on 'FOX News Sunday' http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,215397,00.html
2000s

“Shakespeare wrote, Einstein thought, Atatürk built.”

Bill Clinton

Address to the International Trade Organization, as quoted in Helenic Resources Net (January 5, 2000) http://www.hri.org/news/turkey/trkpr/2000/00-01-05.trkpr.html
2000s

“Yesterday is yesterday. If we try to recapture it, we will only lose tomorrow.”

Bill Clinton

President Clinton's speech at the 200th anniversary of the University of North Carolina.
This quote was later used as a sample by electronic duo Cosmic Gate in their track "Tomorrow"
2000s

“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

While touring tsunami-devastated areas with his presidential predecessor, George H. W. Bush, February 2005[citation needed]
2000s

People , Thinking , Forgetting

“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

At an event sponsored by the Center for American Progress, October 18, 2006[citation needed]
2000s

Problem , Time

“I feel your pain.”

Bill Clinton

Response to AIDS activist Bob Rafsky at the Laura Belle nightclub in Manhattan (March 27, 1992)
1990s

Pain , Feeling

“I just love that rug.”

Bill Clinton

Small chatter with George W. Bush in the Oval Office
Newsweek magazine
2000s

Love