Top 1652 Quotes & Sayings by George W. Bush - Page 26

And one of the challenges, of course, is to convince people that Muslims would like to be free, that there's other people other than people in Britain and America that would like to be free in the world.

You can imagine these radicals getting a hold of a country where they're able to pull oil off the market to run the price of oil up to extract concession.

I'm the only president who really put it out in the State of the Union and was very specific about how I felt we ought to do it.

The more you defend in the face of a critical audience, the more you polarize.

I'm going to be involved with freedom; I'm going to be involved in the marketplace; I'm going to be involved in the accountability in schools.

I am comfortable knowing that I put my heart and soul into the presidency.

If you're a poor worker - this is for new workers coming into the workplace - your benefits will increase at the current rate of increase. If you're a wealthier worker, your benefits would increase at the rate of inflation. And those changes would affect positively the unfunded liabilities inherent in Social Security.

I believe the role of government is to stand side by side with our citizens to help them realize their dreams, not tell citizens how to live their lives.

The stakes are geopolitical in nature and I believe that democracies are - people want to live in free societies, democracies are the best way to do that, and that if people see democracies in the neighborhood, they'll demand the same thing.

I pray daily, and I pray in all kinds of places. I mean, I pray in bed, I pray in the Oval Office. I pray a lot. And just different as the spirit moves me. And faith is an integral part of my life.

I've got a job to do, and I'm going to be judged upon whether or not the world is more peaceful and whether or not America is more prosperous and more compassionate.

The work in Iraq is difficult and it is dangerous. Like most Americans, I see the images of violence and bloodshed. Every picture is horrifying, and the suffering is real.

We don't need mass armies anymore. We replace it with more effective equipment.

We spend less time with each other now than we did during the presidency. When you're president, you're usually out and back in the same day - at least I was. I just came from a trip to the Middle East last week, where I was gone for five nights, and when I left, Laura [Bush] was out of town.

We don't talk about sources and methods. Don't talk about ongoing intelligence operations. I know there's speculation. But it's important for the American people to understand that I will use my powers to protect us, and I will do so under the law, and that's important for our citizens to understand.

We run a danger of trying to say the casualties are less than other wars or more than expected. It's just everybody matters, every person matters, and what really matters is having the strategy and the will to make sure any death is not - is honored by achieving an objective.

The terrorists do not understand America. The American people do not falter under threat, and we will not allow our future to be determined by car bombers and assassins.

We think it is in our nation's interest that Afghan women - or any women around the world - not suffer.

I fully understand some people don't believe it's possible for freedom and democracy to overcome this ideology of hatred. I understand that. I just happen to believe it is possible. And I believe it will happen.

We live in freedom because every generation has produced patriots willing to serve a cause greater than themselves. Those who serve today are taking their rightful place among the greatest generations that have worn our nation's uniform.

The notion of democracy beginning to emerge scares the ideologues, the totalitarians, those who want to impose their vision. It just frightens them.

I meant it when I said she was the greatest first lady ever. Because she viewed the presidency and being first lady as an opportunity to improve people's lives. It wasn't a burden. She put her heart and soul into the experience, just like I did.

I'm joyful in my religious belief.

We`ll fight terrorists in Iraq, we'll fight them across the world, and we will stay in the fight until the fight is won.

I will reach out to others and explain why I make the decisions I make.

All I can tell you is that I know the enemy, allies, and troops hear what I say.

Definition of victory which is really an important thing for the American people to understand is that we have an ally in the war on terror, that democracy is able to sustain itself and defend itself, and the Iraqi people feel that the security forces that we've trained up are capable of defending themselves against the violent.

Running for governor of Texas against a very popular governor [incumbent Ann Richards] was deemed to be risky. Everybody thought I would lose. As I put in my book, my mother said, "You're going to lose!"

When John Murtha, for example, said the Marines are killing innocent civilians in cold blood.

In Iraq we are fighting against men with blind hatred and armed with lethal weapons who are capable of any atrocity. They wear no uniform; they respect no laws of warfare or morality. They take innocent lives to create chaos for the cameras.

There's this kind of almost - kind of a weird kind of elitism that says well maybe - maybe certain people in certain parts of the world shouldn't be free; maybe it's best just to let them sit in these tyrannical societies. And our foreign policy rejects that concept. And we don't accept it. And so we're working.

In my judgment, the only way to deal with terrorists is to stay on the offensive, is to find them and bring them to justice before they hurt us again.

Liberty can change habits.

German people are essentially pacifists. Many still remember the experience of World War II. And they may not have seen Saddam Hussein as evil a person as a lot of other people have.

The terrorists know that the outcome will leave them emboldened or defeated. So they are waging a campaign of murder and destruction. And there is no limit to the innocent lives they are willing to take.

Americans have always held firm, because we have always believed in certain truths. We know that if evil is not confronted, it gains in strength and audacity and returns to strike us again. We know that when the work is hard, the proper response is not retreat, it is courage. And we know that a great ideal of human freedom entrusted to us in a special way and that the ideal of liberty is worth defending.

The terrorists can kill the innocent, but they cannot stop the advance of freedom.

Something that is completely unwinnable. I mean, it becomes unwinnable if we decide to leave [Afghanistan].

Wars are fought on objectives, not on timetable, and that's why I've been so insistent upon not allowing ourselves to have policy driven by time table, but by objective.

Our goal in Iraq is victory. Our goal is for a young democracy to be able to sustain itself, govern itself, and defend itself and serve as an ally in the war on terror.

Democracy will be transformative. It will help other societies realize the benefits of freedom. Nothing's as big as that, in terms of peace.

Whatever party you're in in America, our troops deserve the full support of our government.

I don't mind people trying to pick apart my policies, and that's fine and that's fair game. But, you know, I don't think we're serving our nation well by allowing the discourse to become so uncivil that people use words that they shouldn't be using.

What people can't possibly imagine is what it's like to have two presidents who have a relationship as father and son.

I think that not criticizing my successor is a statement unto itself, in terms of trying to create an environment where people are able to have a meaningful discussion or debate without trash talk.

It's been a hard lesson for me , but contrary quite frankly to what is a common practice in politics, I can tell from my own experience, it is better to stay away from personalities.

I think the key anecdote in the book is when Colin [Powell] and I were discussing Iraq. Colin was upstairs in the Treaty Room, in the residence. And he talks about his concerns about the use of military in Iraq. And I said I felt the same concerns, but it might be that we have to use it. In which case, he said, "I support you."

American nation will not wait to be attacked again. We will defend our freedom and we will take the fight to the enemy.

Life really is a series of contrasts.

You cannot lead an alliance if you say you're going alone.

Democrats didn't agree with policies. How do I know? Because they voted against them when they came up on the floor of the House and the Senate.

I think a lot of the national Democrats believe that, you know, Iraq is a distraction and not part of the War on Terror. They've said so. And I strongly disagree.

I think that if you don't think we're in a war that you can't win the war.

I suspect people are going to vote for Max Burns because they know him as local boy who's got - share their values.

Each congressional race really depends upon the candidates and how they carry the message.

In 2002, a lot of the pundits didn't get the off-year elections right. In 2004, a lot of people thought I was going down eight days before the election.

The American people have got a touchstone: Which party voted for the tools necessary to protect America and which party didn't? And that's what I'm trying to get people to focus on.

I think, to a certain extent the economy and these decisions I made to protect the country matter a lot.

Values matters well in a race.

That's important when you are running an organization so that the people who work with you know what you believe in and know those beliefs won't change.