Top 86 Quotes & Sayings by Fred Thompson

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American politician Fred Thompson.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
Fred Thompson

Freddie Dalton Thompson was an American politician, attorney, lobbyist, columnist, actor, and radio personality. A member of the Republican Party, he served as a United States Senator from Tennessee from 1994 to 2003; Thompson was an unsuccessful candidate in the Republican Party presidential primaries for the 2008 United States presidential election.

We just ask the agency to make reasonable and honest decisions, and the public deserves no less.
While we believe there are fruitful opportunities to update and improve old rules, we do not want to set up a review process that could create a litigation morass.
We have some real political differences among us, but we all share the same goals: clean air and water, injury free workplaces, safe transportation systems, to name a few of the good things that can come from regulation.
There's a lot more to competence than a law degree and a modicum of courtroom skill. — © Fred Thompson
There's a lot more to competence than a law degree and a modicum of courtroom skill.
We're hoping for the best, but we need to prepare for the worst.
In the end, we may be hurting the very people we should be concerned about - the inner-city poor, those who already have to live with many risks in their daily lives, those who do not have clout here in Washington.
Nobody wants to open a business near a Superfund site and risk being sued.
And I believe in the 13 years Judge Roberts was there, he never turned down a request to give some assistance on a pro-bono case, and this was no different.
For example, lead paint in old houses can be a greater threat to children's health than lead that may be under some industrial site where there are no children.
Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists.
So China will be having to make some choices as to whose side it wants to be on. Hopefully, this will be the beginning of a major improvement in our relationship with them, if they choose correctly.
We also have to ask if we focusing on the most important priorities.
I think that the justices were totally answering the way that they should. I think that the senators, as best I could tell, for the most part, Democrat and Republican, respected that.
And it's difficult for the average American to understand why something like that could be so important and why a little small place like Taiwan would be so important to the PRC.
You can't substitute promise after promise with known violators of prior promises at the expense of protecting ourselves or setting an example. — © Fred Thompson
You can't substitute promise after promise with known violators of prior promises at the expense of protecting ourselves or setting an example.
Superfund was passed with the good intention of cleaning up America's toxic waste sites.
For a long time in American history, people didn't even come up before the Senate. They didn't come before the Judiciary Committee, and up until about 1923, something like that.
We've made some mistakes in this country in times past - the Korean conflict proceeding that, some say proceeding the Persian Gulf War, where we were ambiguous as to what we would do.
But obviously, we can't afford to make some bad long-term decisions with regard to basic commitments our country has - trade those away for some short-term assistance that may or may not be there a month from now.
But if the Chinese mainland, the PRC, attacked Taiwan, we'd be obligated to come to their aid.
Let's not overlook, though, what we do know about the campaign finance scandal, and the fact the Chinese were involved in our presidential campaign and our congressional campaigns.
Hopefully, we can build bridges, but we also have to draw lines.
The problem is that agencies sometimes lose sight of common sense as they create regulations.
So if you look back over the long history of China, they've never tried to take over the world, but they've been quite aggressive in their own neighborhood... in carrying out their own purposes and interests in their sphere of the world.
And when we draw lines in the sand with regard to certain basic things that are vital to our interest and to the interest of democracy and our friends around the world, we have to be willing to back that up.
That is, while we believe that cost-benefit analysis is an important tool to inform agency decision making, the results of the cost-benefit analysis do not trump existing law.
I think that there is a relatively small number of people who are pushing for independence in Taiwan.
Clearly, the Chinese know that we want a good relationship with them.
Sometimes you have to, as I say, build bridges where you can - but draw lines where you must.
China is one of the world's greatest proliferators of weapons of mass destruction to these rogue nations.
Every foreign policy of every major nation involves reason, common sense, carrots and sticks. You can't have all carrots and no sticks.
Nobody wants to open a business near a Superfund site and risk being sued
I'm offering myself up. I'm saying that if I have the background, the capability and the concern to do this and I'm doing this for the right reasons... but I'm not particularly interested in running for president, but I think I'd make a good president. Nowadays, the process has become much more important than I think it used to be.
If we do not design policies to halt, and then reverse population growth, Nature by default will soon exact a most punishing solution
Fewer and fewer people are paying larger and larger percentage of the tax burden, as you know, almost half the people pay no income taxes at all. We're going to have more people in the wagon than we got pulling the wagon before long and that's not going to work. Those jobless numbers, you know, go hand-in-hand with those tax numbers.
America needs a president who understands the nature of the world we live in.
Jay Carney told the reporters at his morning briefing that he hoped they would watch the new movie about Obama's first term 'many times.' They might. Look how well 'Titanic' did at the box office.
So if you look back over the long history of China, they've never tried to take over the world, but they've been quite aggressive in their own neighborhood... in carrying out their own purposes and interests in their sphere of the world
And it's difficult for the average American to understand why something like that could be so important and why a little small place like Taiwan would be so important to the PRC
Being a POW certainly doesn't qualify anyone to be president. — © Fred Thompson
Being a POW certainly doesn't qualify anyone to be president.
A new survey shows that the American public is more conservative now than at any point since 1952. The bad news is that all the liberals that died since then are still voting.
A [person] who Never quits is never defeated.
A new report shows that medicare and Medicaid made more than $50 Billion in bad payments during fiscal year 2011. Under Obamacare, that'll become known as 'Tuesday.'
The University of North Carolina-Greensboro has ordered a Christian club to allow non-Christians as leaders. While we're at it, let's put high school dropouts in charge of the University.
Study: 60% of young Americans plan to buy firearms. The other 40% were confused, saying they thought they were free under Obamacare.
John McCain was a prisoner of war.
A new report shows that, in Virginia, gun violence has fallen as the sale of firearms has soared to a new record. In other news, a recent study shows that most criminals don't like getting shot at.
There's nothing hard about acting except the long hours.
Russians don't take a dump, son, without a plan.
And when we draw lines in the sand with regard to certain basic things that are vital to our interest and to the interest of democracy and our friends around the world, we have to be willing to back that up
I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish, I just don't want to do it all the time. — © Fred Thompson
I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish, I just don't want to do it all the time.
This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it.
Today I have withdrawn my candidacy for President of the United States. I hope that my country and my party have benefited from our having made this effort. Jeri and I will always be grateful for the encouragement and friendship of so many wonderful people.
This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined, and I'm tired of people feeling like they've got to apologize for America.
If we have more people on the receiving end of government - more people as the middle class becomes sucked in more and more to these entitlement programs, for example - then we're going to be in a place where it's going to be hard to go back. It's going to be hard to go back again. It's going to be hard to take away stuff. It's not impossible.
That is, while we believe that cost-benefit analysis is an important tool to inform agency decision making, the results of the cost-benefit analysis do not trump existing law
After two years in Washington, I often long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood.
We, as a nation, cannot wait for the Pearl Harbor of the information age. We must increase our vigilance to tackle this problem before we are hit with a surprise attack.
Global warming experts are saying that sea levels could rise 20 feet. Apparently their strategy for surviving this is to stand on top of a pile of government research grant money.
Now, being a POW certainly doesn't qualify anyone to be president. But it does reveal character. This is the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of history have sought in their leaders.
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