Quotes about bush

A collection of quotes on the topic of bush, presidency, president, use.

Quotes about bush

Elizabeth Barrett Browning photo

“Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God,
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Aurora Leigh http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/barrett/aurora/aurora.html (1857)
Context: And truly, I reiterate,.. nothing's small!
No lily-muffled hum of a summer-bee,
But finds some coupling with the spinning stars;
No pebble at your foot, but proves a sphere;
No chaffinch, but implies the cherubim:
And, — glancing on my own thin, veined wrist, —
In such a little tremour of the blood
The whole strong clamour of a vehement soul
Doth utter itself distinct. Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God:
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes,
The rest sit round it, and pluck blackberries,
And daub their natural faces unaware
More and more, from the first similitude.

Bk. VII, l. 812-826.

Miguel de Cervantes photo

“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”

Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright

Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part I, Book IV, Ch. 4.

Kanye West photo

“George Bush doesn't care about black people.”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Live on NBC’s “A Concert for Hurricane Relief“ on September 2 2005

Ahmad Shah Massoud photo

“If President Bush doesn't help us, these terrorists will damage the U. S. and Europe very soon.”

Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953–2001) Afghan military leader

Remark to a reporter (April 2001), quoted in Time (4 August 2002) " The Secret History https://archive.is/20120919170542/www.time.com/time/covers/1101020812/story.html" by Michael Elliott.

Paulo Coelho photo
Adam Levine photo

“George Bush is just as much in the dark as I am, and it scares me.”

Adam Levine (1979) singer, songwriter, actor, and record producer from the United States

On the need for change
No byline (2004-10-14), "Voices for Charge". Rolling Stone. (959):64-70.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn photo
Terry Pratchett photo
Rick Riordan photo
Kurt Vonnegut photo
Ben Stein photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“George [H. W. Bush] brought his ne'er-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

Cited to a Reagan diary entry in 1986, but actually from a parody written by Michael Kinsley in June 2007.
Misattributed

Osama bin Laden photo

“Contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom. If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example - Sweden?”

Osama bin Laden (1957–2011) founder of al-Qaeda

2000s, 2004, 2004 Video Broadcast on Al-Jazeera October 29

Jay Leno photo

“Now, today is the day we honor, of course, the Presidents, ranging from George Washington, who couldn't tell a lie, to George Bush, who couldn't tell the truth, to Bill Clinton, who couldn't tell the difference.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

Monologue, 19 February 2007 (U.S. Presidents Day)
The Tonight Show

Archilochus photo

“Some Saian mountaineer
Struts today with my shield.
I threw it down by a bush and ran
When the fighting got hot.
Life seemed somehow more precious.
It was a beautiful shield.
I know where I can buy another
Exactly like it, just as round.”

Archilochus (-680–-645 BC) Ancient Greek lyric poet

Fragments
Variant: A Saian boasts about the shield which beside a bush
though good armour I unwillingly left behind.
I saved myself, so what do I care about the shield?
To hell with it! I'll get one soon just as good.
Variant: I don't give a damn if some Thracian ape strut
Proud of that first-rate shield the bushes got.
Leaving it was hell, but in a tricky spot
I kept my hide intact. Good shields can be bought. (as translated by Stuart Silverman)
Variant: Let who will boast their courage in the field,
I find but little safety from my shield.
Nature's, not honour's, law we must obey:
This made me cast my useless shield away,
And by a prudent flight and cunning save
A life, which valour could not, from the grave.
A better buckler I can soon regain;
But who can get another life again?

Hunter S. Thompson photo
Barack Obama photo

“There was no such thing as Al Qaeda in Iraq, until George Bush and John McCain decided to invade Iraq.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Speech in Columbus, Ohio (27 February 2008)
2008

Barack Obama photo

“Nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face. So what they are going to try to do is make you scared of me. You know he — oh, he's not patriotic enough. He's got a funny name. You know, he doesn't look like all of those other presidents on those dollar bills.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Campaign rally in Springfield, Missouri, July 30, 2008 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iNxTApa2sQRu0Xx99P3jt2bEXw7gD928U6F00
2008

Kurt Vonnegut photo

“The only difference between Bush and Hitler is that Hitler was elected.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

As quoted in "Kurt Vonnegut's 'Stardust Memory'" http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2006/1326 by Harvey Wasserman in The Free Press (4 March 2006); in actuality, Hitler also wasn't elected by a clear majority vote. Although the Nazi Party was elected to the largest number of seats in the Reichstag, it did not have a majority, and could only form a government through a coalition. Eventually, Hitler was appointed as Chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg, and used that position as leverage to gain dictatorial powers.
Various interviews

Hillary Clinton photo

“It did take a Clinton to clean up after the first Bush, and I think it might take another one to clean up after the second Bush.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

CNN http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/31/debate.main/index.html
Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)

Hu Jintao photo
Hu Jintao photo
Yoweri Museveni photo

“Even when we were still fighting in the bush against the oppressive dictatorships of Idi Amin and Milton Obote, we introduced elections for the committees of the villages under our control.”

Yoweri Museveni (1944) President of Uganda

As quoted in "President Museveni Highlights Ugandan Achievements for Americans: Ugandan leader proud of political opening, economic growth in his country" https://web.archive.org/web/20050927025054/http://news.findlaw.com/wash/s/20050923/200509231521551.html (23 September 2005), by Jim Fisher-Thompson, Washington File, FindLaw
2000s

Kanye West photo

“How we stop the black panthers?
Ronald Reagan cooked up an answer Who gave Saddam anthrax?
George Bush got the answers”

Kanye West (1977) American rapper, singer and songwriter

Crack Music
Lyrics, Late Registration (2005)

Vladimir Putin photo
Mike Shinoda photo
Nikola Tesla photo
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama photo
David Icke photo
Zakir Naik photo

“It is a blatant, open secret that this attack on the Twin Towers was done by George Bush himself.”

Zakir Naik (1965) Islamic televangelist

Condemning 11th September attacks, 31 July, 2008. http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1846.htm.

Maxim Gorky photo

“It is quiet and peaceful here, the air is good, there are numerous gardens, and in them nightingales sing and spies lurk under the bushes.”

Maxim Gorky (1868–1936) Russian and Soviet writer

Letter to Anton Chekhov http://books.google.com/books?id=rXsdAAAAMAAJ&q="It+is+quiet+and+peaceful+here+the+air+is+good+there+are+numerous+gardens+and+in++them+nightingales+sing+and+spies+lurk+under+the+bushes"&pg=PA28#v=onepage

Kurt Vonnegut photo

“Well, I just want to say that George W. Bush is the syphilis president.”

Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American writer

As quoted in "Kurt Vonnegut's 'Stardust Memory'" http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2006/1326, Harvey Wasserman, The Free Press (4 March 2006)
Various interviews

Anthony Zinni photo
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama photo

“On Iraq, on paper, there's not as much difference, I think, between the Bush administration and a Kerry administration as there would have been a year ago. There's not much of a difference between my position and George Bush's position at this stage.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

"Obama's a Star Who Doesn't Follow the Script" by John Kass in The Chigago Tribune (27 July 2004)
2004

Neil Gaiman photo
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama photo
Barack Obama photo

“I'm proud of the fact that I stood up early and unequivocally in opposition to Bush's foreign policy. That opposition hasn't changed.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Letter to The Black Commentator http://www.blackcommentator.com/47/47_cover.html (19 June 2003).
2000-03

Barack Obama photo

“As President Bush just said, a great nation doesn’t shy from the truth. It strengthens us. It emboldens us. It should fortify us.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

Remarks by the President at the Dedication of the National Museum of African American History and Culture at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/09/24/remarks-president-dedication-national-museum-african-american-history (24 September 2016)
2016

Friedrich Nietzsche photo

“When someone hides something behind a bush and looks for it again in the same place and finds it there as well, there is not much to praise in such seeking and finding. Yet this is how matters stand regarding seeking and finding "truth" within the realm of reason. If I make up the definition of a mammal, and then, after inspecting a camel, declare "look, a mammal' I have indeed brought a truth to light in this way, but it is a truth of limited value.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

On Truth and Lie in an Extra-Moral Sense (1873)
Context: When someone hides something behind a bush and looks for it again in the same place and finds it there as well, there is not much to praise in such seeking and finding. Yet this is how matters stand regarding seeking and finding "truth" within the realm of reason. If I make up the definition of a mammal, and then, after inspecting a camel, declare "look, a mammal' I have indeed brought a truth to light in this way, but it is a truth of limited value. That is to say, it is a thoroughly anthropomorphic truth which contains not a single point which would be "true in itself" or really and universally valid apart from man. At bottom, what the investigator of such truths is seeking is only the metamorphosis of the world into man.

Bill Bailey photo
Virginia Woolf photo

“Two things alone remained to him in which he now put any trust: dogs and nature; an elk-hound and a rose bush. The world, in all its variety, life in all its complexity, had shrunk to that. Dogs and a bush were the whole of it.”

Source: Orlando: A Biography (1928), Ch. 2
Context: At the age of thirty, or thereabouts, this young Nobleman had not only had every experience that life has to offer, but had seen the worthlessness of them all. Love and ambition, women and poets were all equally vain. Literature was a farce. The night after reading Greene's Visit to a Nobleman in the Country, he burnt in a great conflagration fifty-seven poetical works, only retaining 'The Oak Tree', which was his boyish dream and very short. Two things alone remained to him in which he now put any trust: dogs and nature; an elk-hound and a rose bush. The world, in all its variety, life in all its complexity, had shrunk to that. Dogs and a bush were the whole of it.

Barack Obama photo

“I am asking the same thing of you that President Bush did when he spoke at this commencement in 2002: “America needs more than taxpayers, spectators, and occasional voters,” he said. “America needs full-time citizens.”
And as graduates from a university whose motto is “Education for Citizenship,” that’s what your country expects of you. So briefly, I will ask you for two things: to participate, and to persevere.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2013, Commencement Address at Ohio State University (May 2013)
Context: I don’t pretend to have all the answers. And I’m not going to offer some grand theory – not when it’s a beautiful day and you’ve got some celebrating to do. I’m not going to get partisan, either, because that’s not what citizenship is about. In fact, I am asking the same thing of you that President Bush did when he spoke at this commencement in 2002: “America needs more than taxpayers, spectators, and occasional voters,” he said. “America needs full-time citizens.”
And as graduates from a university whose motto is “Education for Citizenship,” that’s what your country expects of you. So briefly, I will ask you for two things: to participate, and to persevere.
After all, your democracy does not function without your active participation. At a bare minimum, that means voting, eagerly and often. It means knowing who’s been elected to make decisions on your behalf, what they believe in, and whether or not they deliver. If they don’t represent you the way you want, or conduct themselves the way you expect – if they put special interests above your own – you’ve got to let them know that’s not okay. And if they let you down, there’s a built-in day in November where you can really let them know that’s not okay.

Frank Zappa photo

“I think that if you use the so-called "strong words" you'll get your point across faster and you can save a lot of beating around the bush.”

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American musician, songwriter, composer, and record and film producer

Crossfire debate on censorship (1986)
Context: I think that if you use the so-called "strong words" you'll get your point across faster and you can save a lot of beating around the bush. Why are people afraid of words? Sometimes the dumbest thing that gets said makes the point for you.

Sean Penn photo
Alphonse Karr photo

“Let us try to see things from their better side: You complain about seeing thorny rose bushes; Me, I rejoice and give thanks to the gods That thorns have roses.”

Alphonse Karr (1808–1890) French critic, journalist, and novelist

"Letters written from my garden", 1853

Chelsea Handler photo

“I was in a tailspin of confusion I hadn't experienced since the first time I heard George W. Bush speak.”

Chelsea Handler (1975) American comedian, actress, author and talk show host

Source: My Horizontal Life: A Collection of One-Night Stands

Chelsea Handler photo
Bill Hicks photo
Jay Leno photo
John Waters photo
Sarah Vowell photo
Douglas Adams photo
Margaret Cho photo

“Bush is not Hitler. He would be if he applied himself.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Books, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight, WAR

Peter Lerangis photo
Stephen Colbert photo
Bill Hicks photo
Ann Richards photo

“He was born on third base and thought he hit a triple. [about George Bush, Sr. ]”

Ann Richards (1933–2006) American politician

about George Bush, Sr. Earlier use by Barry Switzer<ref name="kcstar">[Tom, Shatel, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-12-14/sports/8604030680_1_big-eight-coach-aren-t-many-coaches-oklahoma, The Unknown Barry Switzer, Kansas City Star and Times, December 14, 1986, 2012-04-05]
Misattributed

Alice Walker photo
Graydon Carter photo
Karen Marie Moning photo
Jon Krakauer photo
Rick Riordan photo

“He had a crush on a blueberry bush once.”

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

Chelsea Handler photo
Joseph Boyden photo
Christine O'Donnell photo
Anton Chekhov photo
Porphyrios Bairaktaris photo
Dan Quayle photo
Hillary Clinton photo

“You know, there's a great saying in Texas — you've all heard it — all hat and no cattle. Well, after seven years of George Bush, we need a lot less hat and a lot more cattle.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Campaign speech in El Paso, TX, February 12, 2008. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/12/AR2008021202856.html?hpid=topnews
Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)

Bill O'Reilly photo

“If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush Administration again, all right?”

Bill O'Reilly (1949) American political commentator, television host and writer

2003-03-18
Good Morning America
ABC
Television
[2004-02-25, Peter, Hart, Bill O'Reilly's "Apology": Still Spinning in the 'No Spin Zone', Common Dreams, http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-10.htm]
on finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq

George Soros photo
Erik Naggum photo

“Well, I think comparing Common Lisp to Scheme is prima facie evidence of ill will, even if Common Lisp wins. It is somewhat like a supposed compliment like "man, you are even smarter than George W. Bush."”

Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer

Re: Setting a property in a symbol http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/80bdf64552957f61 (Usenet article).
Usenet articles, Lisp

Harry V. Jaffa photo
Mike Malloy photo

“What about the people that couldn't get out?! Someday it's gonna happen to you, Chertoff! … You won't have a car, and you won't have a government airplane, and you won't have a cell phone, and you won't have a weapon! … Blaming the victim… You filthy pig! You filthy, good-for-nothing Bush Crime Family member! … Oh, these people just make me furious!”

Mike Malloy (1942) American radio broadcaster

http://server7.whiterosesociety.org/content/malloy/MalloyShow-(06-09-2005).mp3
reacting to Michael Chertoff talking about people that couldn't leave New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina.
On Hurricane Katrina

Vincent Gallo photo
Kathy Griffin photo

“It was sweaty Whitney (Houston) in Central Park. She knew that park pretty well. Every bush!”

Kathy Griffin (1960) American actress and comedian

Balls of Steel (2009)

Garry Kasparov photo
Al Sharpton photo

“I suggest to you tonight that if George Bush had selected the [Supreme] court in '54, Clarence Thomas would have never got to law school.”

Al Sharpton (1954) American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and television/radio talk show host

From the 2004 DNC

Hillary Clinton photo

“From almost the first day they got into office, they (President Bush and Vice President Cheney) were trying to figure out how to get rid of Saddam Hussein. I’m not a psychiatrist – I don’t know all of the reasons behind their concern, some might say their obsession.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Town Hall speech http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/counterprogramming-clinton-in-new-hampshire/, Berlin, NH, as reported in The New York Times (10 February 2007)
Presidential campaign (January 20, 2007 – 2008)

Hunter S. Thompson photo
Tina Fey photo
Andrew Sullivan photo
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg photo

“Here take back the stuff that I am, nature, knead it back into the dough of being, make of me a bush, a cloud, whatever you will, even a man, only no longer make me me.”

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) German scientist, satirist

B 37 "Speech of a suicide composed shortly before the act."
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook B (1768-1771)

Michael Moore photo

“Early talk was that anti-Bush people would go see it and pro-Bush people would stay home, and that's not the case. Most people do not go around with labels. A lot of Republicans have open minds.”

Michael Moore (1954) American filmmaker, author, social critic, and liberal activist

On the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 — Zap2it.com (27 June 2004)
2004, Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)

Ahmad Jannati photo

“Al-Qaeda means Bush and Blair. Who established Al-Qaeda? You are the ones who should be put on trial. You were the mother of Al-Qaeda.”

Ahmad Jannati (1927) Iranian ayatollah

Terror in London (9) - Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati in Tehran Friday Sermon: The English Government May Have Caused the London Bombings Like the US Government May Have Caused 9/11 http://www.memritv.org/clip_transcript/en/758.htm July 2005.
Al Qaeda

Gore Vidal photo
Dinesh D'Souza photo
Angela Davis photo
Robert Mugabe photo
Noam Chomsky photo

“In Somalia, we know exactly what they had to gain because they told us. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Colin Powell, described this as the best public relations operation of the Pentagon that he could imagine. His picture, which I think is plausible, is that there was a problem about raising the Pentagon budget, and they needed something that would be, look like a kind of a cakewalk, which would give a lot of prestige to the Pentagon. Somalia looked easy. Let's look back at the background. For years, the United States had supported a really brutal dictator, who had just devastated the country, and was finally kicked out. After he's kicked out, it was 1990, the country sank into total chaos and disaster, with starvation and warfare and all kind of horrible misery. The United States refused to, certainly to pay reparations, but even to look. By the middle of 1992, it was beginning to ease. The fighting was dying down, food supplies were beginning to get in, the Red Cross was getting in, roughly 80% of their supplies they said. There was a harvest on the way. It looked like it was finally sort of settling down. At that point, all of a sudden, George Bush announced that he had been watching these heartbreaking pictures on television, on Thanksgiving, and we had to do something, we had to send in humanitarian aid. The Marines landed, in a landing which was so comical, that even the media couldn't keep a straight face. Take a look at the reports of the landing of the Marines, it must've been the first week of December 1992. They had planned a night, there was nothing that was going on, but they planned a night landing, so you could show off all the fancy new night vision equipment and so on. Of course they had called the television stations, because what's the point of a PR operation for the Pentagon if there's no one to look for it. So the television stations were all there, with their bright lights and that sort of thing, and as the Marines were coming ashore they were blinded by the television light. So they had to send people out to get the cameramen to turn off the lights, so they could land with their fancy new equipment. As I say, even the media could not keep a straight face on this one, and they reported it pretty accurately. Also reported the PR aspect. Well the idea was, you could get some nice shots of Marine colonels handing out peanut butter sandwiches to starving refugees, and that'd all look great. And so it looked for a couple of weeks, until things started to get unpleasant. As things started to get unpleasant, the United States responded with what's called the Powell Doctrine. The United States has an unusual military doctrine, it's one of the reasons why the U. S. is generally disqualified from peace keeping operations that involve civilians, again, this has to do with sovereignty. U. S. military doctrine is that U. S. soldiers are not permitted to come under any threat. That's not true for other countries. So countries like, say, Canada, the Fiji Islands, Pakistan, Norway, their soldiers are coming under threat all the time. The peace keepers in southern Lebanon for example, are being attacked by Israeli soldiers all the time, and have suffered plenty of casualties, and they don't like it. But U. S. soldiers are not permitted to come under any threat, so when Somali teenagers started shaking fists at them, and more, they came back with massive fire power, and that led to a massacre. According to the U. S., I don't know the actual numbers, but according to U. S. government, about 7 to 10 thousand Somali civilians were killed before this was over. There's a close analysis of all of this by Alex de Waal, who's one of the world's leading specialists on African famine and relief, altogether academic specialist. His estimate is that the number of people saved by the intervention and the number killed by the intervention was approximately in the same ballpark. That's Somalia. That's what's given as a stellar example of the humanitarian intervention.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Responding to the question, "what did the United States have to gain by intervening in Somalia?", regarding Operation Provide Relief/Operation Restore Hope/Battle of Mogadishu.
Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999, Sovereignty and World Order, 1999

Caspar David Friedrich photo

“Gently rising hills block the view into the distance; line the wishes and desires of the children, who enjoy the blissful moments of the present without wanting to know what lies beyond. Bushes in bloom, nourishing herbs, and sweet-smelling flowers surround the quiet clear stream in which the pure blue of the cloudless sky is reflected like the glorious image of God in the souls of the children... There is no stone to be seen here, no withered branch, no fallen leaves. The whole of nature breathes, peace, joy, innocence and life.”

Caspar David Friedrich (1774–1840) Swedish painter

Quote from Friedrich's Diary entry, written Aug. 1803 at Loschwitz; as cited in Religious Symbolism in Caspar David Friedrich, by Colin J. Bailey https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m2225&datastreamId=POST-PEER-REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF, paper; Oct. 1988 - Edinburgh College of Art, pp. 11-12
Friedrich is describing here his first composition of the painting 'Spring', 1803 (a later version he painted in 1808, viewed and described then by Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert)
1794 - 1840

Al Gore photo
George Galloway photo
Jim Webb photo

“George W. Bush: How's your boy?
Webb: I'd like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President
Bush: That's not what I asked you. How's your boy?
Webb: That's between me and my boy, Mr. President.”

Jim Webb (1946) American politician, military officer and author

In Following His Own Script, Webb May Test Senate's Limits, Washington Post, November 29, 2006, Michael D. Shear http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/28/AR2006112801582.html,