Top 45 Quotes & Sayings by Deval Patrick
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American politician Deval Patrick.
Last updated on April 17, 2025.
My grandma forbid us from describing ourselves as poor. She said, 'we're broke.' Because broke is temporary.
I have never taken a job or done a job where I felt I needed to leave my conscience at the door. One of the great things about not being in politics as a career is that I can do this job without thinking about my career. I can think about what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish and what we're trying to leave.
I'd like to have another opportunity to serve. I believe in service. I enjoy it. I also like coming and going, you know, because I think that my private-sector life has contributed to how I think about public-sector challenges and what I do in the public sector.
We believe that in times like these we should turn to each other, not on each other. We believe that government has a role to play, not in solving every problem in everybody's life but in helping people help themselves to the American dream. That's what Democrats believe.
In the view of some people, you can only believe in civil rights if you work as a civil rights lawyer. I just don't buy that.
I have never taken a job or done a job where I felt I needed to leave my conscience at the door. One of the the great things about not being in politics as a career is that I can do this job without thinking about my career. I can think about what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish and what we're trying to leave.
People aren't going to go bankrupt anymore if they have a serious illness, which was a serious issue here in the country before the Affordable Care Act. And, in fact, the expense of expanding health care for those who need the subsidy is picked up by the federal government for most of the early years.
The summer before my third year of law school, I worked at a law firm in Washington, D.C. I turned 25 that July, and on my birthday, my father happened to be playing in a local jazz club called Pigfoot and invited me to join him. I hadn't spent a birthday with him since I was 3, but I agreed.
We have drained common sense out of our politics. The more we focus on tactics and games, the more good people check out and give up.
I think that hope, that ability to envision, to imagine a better way, and then to apply yourself to it, is the way to climb out of a hole, is the way to build a better life, is the way to build a better community and a better country.
This is a horrific day in Boston. My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured.
If you are ever going to move beyond where you stand at that moment you have to conjure a picture in your head of where you want to go.
I view the experiences that I have had - both the tough ones and the pleasant ones - as gifts.
I've fixed hard problems of all kinds, civil rights and business problems. It's the stuff I like to do, and I'm good at it, as a matter of fact... and I never left my conscience at the door.
I view the experiences that I have had - both tough ones and the pleasant ones - as gifts. They've been full of lessons. And I've learned to be open to those lessons.
Anybody who knows me knows that I'm no attack dog.
A great teacher who is full of excitement and love for her students can make all the difference in their lives.
Mitt Romney talks a lot about all the things he's fixed. I can tell you that Massachusetts wasn't one of them. He's a fine fellow and a great salesman, but as governor he was more interested in having the job than doing it.
People read inevitability as entitlement, and the American people want their candidates to sweat for the job. They want them to actually make a case for the job.
We need a government that is what we are at our best. Smart, efficient, pragmatic and compassionate.
Let's go tell everyone we meet that, when the American dream is at stake, you want Barack Obama in charge.
I don't want to be a senator.
My most vivid memory of my father centers on the day he left. It was warm, and my mother was especially short with Rhonda and me that afternoon, which I attributed to the heat. I was oblivious to the mounting hostilities in our basement apartment.
I grew up on the south side of Chicago, most of that time on welfare. My mother and sister and I used to live with my grandparents and various cousins. We shared a two-bedroom tenement, and the three of us slept in one of those bedrooms and had a set of bunk beds.
I remember how my dad was so into herbal solutions and health food well before that stuff became popular.
I very much believe in values-based leadership and that the values that I believe in and try to govern by are transcendent values.
We're Americans. We shape our own future. Let's start by standing up for President Barack Obama.
I do identify with St. Patrick, not just in name. He drove the snakes out of Ireland. I intend to drive the snakes out of the State House.
I went to big, broken, under-resourced public schools, but we had a real sense of community, because those were days in the '50s and the '60s when every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block.
For too long, Democrats have been telling people what they want to hear. I'm going to tell you what I believe.
I do identify with St. Patrick, not just in name. He drove the snakes out of Ireland. I intend to drive the snakes out of the State House
We'll be competitive with organized labor, we're also competitive with regular, unorganized labor, working people who see their stakes and their future in the plans we're putting forward to move Massachusetts forward.
I've learned over the years that identity has a whole lot less to do with location or other people's expectations than with your own sense of self and self-confidence.
Governor is the only office I've ever run for, and I did so in the first place because I felt that there was a contribution I could make right now in governing for the long term and by leading by values. I ran for a second term to finish the work we started. I'll finish this out and return to the private sector, which I enjoy and miss in some ways.
It's a free country. I wish it weren't.
Two [Massachusetts coal burning power plants] remain: Brayton Point in the South Coast region and Mt. Tom, just down the road. Within the next four years, both should shut down and Massachusetts should finally end all reliance on conventional coal generation.
"Government" is the name we give to the things we choose to do together.
One great thing about being a black man is that if you put on a hat, you can move around unnoticed.
I’m planning to stay in politics now, but, you know, George Burns worked until he was 100. I don’t know. I don’t want to be a Senator until I’m honored.
It's time for democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe.
Hope for the best and work for it.
Don't tell me words don't matter.
We have drained common sense out of our politics. The more we focus on tactics and games, the more good people check out and give up
I very much believe in values-based leadership, and that the values that I believe in and try to govern by are transcendent values. They have nothing to do with race or even with political parties. Secondly, I think nothing substitutes for the power of the grassroots by showing them the courtesy of going to them where they are and inviting them to take part in the political process.
Be present - and see what a difference it makes in your lives and in the world.
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