Top 154 Quotes & Sayings by Janet Reno - Page 2

Most lawyers aren't trial lawyers. Most lawyers, even trial lawyers, don't get their problems solved in a courtroom. We like to go to court. It seems heroic to go to court. We think we're the new, great advocates, better than anything we've seen on TV, and we come home exhilarated by having gone to court.

We've got to understand that the ages of zero to three are the most formative years of a person's life, the time they learn the concept of reward and punishment and develop a conscience, and that 50 percent of all learned human response is learned in the first year of life.

Police and prosecutors and the courts have got to talk together.

What good is telling America's children that they will have equal opportunity for education if they don't have the skills that will even get them to the point of benefiting from education, because they didn't have the child care, the health care that would enable them to grow as strong and constructive human beings?

All lawyers are going to have to - if we really want to attain civil justice - address the issue of how complicated we have made the laws: what we have done to ensnarl the American people in bureaucratic rules and regulations that make access to services or compliance with the law sometimes difficult, if not impossible.

Under a death penalty statute that is going to stand up to constitutional muster, you look at the aggravating circumstances and the mitigating circumstances.

I hope I will be a good Attorney General, but one of the things that will be as important to me is to know that I made a commitment to my family and honored it, a commitment that has been repaid 10,000 times over.

The first job I ever had in my life was in the Dade County Sheriff's Office in the Identification Bureau in the summer that I graduated from high school and was getting ready to go to college.

Each generation looks to its children to keep our society moving and to make life better.

In 1960, when I graduated from college, people told me a woman couldn't go to law school. And when I graduated from law school, people told me, 'Law firms won't hire you.'

The law as a profession has provided me with more satisfaction than I ever dreamed.

My mother taught us to play baseball, to bake a cake, to play fair - she beat the living daylights out of us sometimes, and she loved us with all her heart; she taught her favorite poets, and there is no child care in the world that will ever be a substitute for what that lady was in our life.

I get accused of being a social worker every now and then.

The Justice Department is staunchly committed to ensuring that all Americans are treated in a fair and just manner.

What we must do is to sit down together as reasonable people and make our government do what is right, and stop doing what may be wrong-headed or wasteful.

The law is very special to me.

We're all in this together, and we all have to make an investment in our most precious possession and in the foundation of our future: our young people.

In 1960, I earned my Chemistry Degree from Cornell University.

We must heal the divisions caused by intolerance and bigotry.

I think police officers can work with social workers and public health nurses to do so much in terms of addressing the problem of American families, of children in American families as a whole, and giving them an opportunity to get off to a fresh start, to become self-sufficient, to lead safe, constructive lives.

If you have a good community behind you and a good family supporting you, then, when the buck stops with you, there is the strength of that community and that family to draw upon.

Unless the law issues from all of the people, some of the people will feel left out. They will come to feel alienated. They will be angry. And this will not be a cohesive democracy.

While I'm the Attorney General, we will address each issue with one question: What's the right thing to do?

We want to look at everything we can do that's right and proper under federal law, and with federal laws to see that the children of America are given a chance to grow as strong, constructive, healthy human beings. It's the best investment we can possibly make in America.

I want to make sure there are no gatekeepers at the AG's door, and that anybody in the Department - they may have to come relatively late in the evening, just judging by the schedules to date - but if somebody has suggestions for how to make this a better department, that they know I am available.

I want to do what I can to make the law make sense to citizens and businesses alike. I want the laws to assist them in worthwhile endeavors, not to stand as bureaucratic obstacles.

It's fine to get paid and get a big verdict, but to go out and represent people, sometimes in unglamorous ways, is really what lawyering is all about.

I want there to be a real partnership between the Department of Justice in Washington and U.S. attorneys.

U.S. attorneys have taught me a lot over the years, and in the Southern district of Florida, they have been to me partners.

I love good and caring lawyers who are advocates, who are defenders, who are problem-solvers, and who are peacemakers.

I'm a scuba diver but not certified.

We've got to look to our educational programs and focus on doing what we can to stem violence in the schools.

Simply put, if we can reduce the risk while increasing protection during the course of a young person's life, we can prevent problems and promote the healthy development of our children, our families, our economy, and the institutions we hold dear.

I know from personal experience what it's like to be discriminated against. I remember people telling me, 'Ladies don't become lawyers,' and now I look at America and know what can be done.

Schools can do extraordinary things given the chance; teachers can do remarkable things if we eliminate the paperwork that sometimes binds them and give them a chance to really teach in our schools.

Our challenge is to remind ourselves that we do have common interest, common grounds, and common dreams.

The lawyers who really begin to address the problems of their clients address them without recourse to our courts, although that recourse is absolutely essential in providing leverage.

I made a promise to myself when I graduated from law school that I would never do anything that I didn't enjoy doing, and almost every day of the year since that June of 1963, I have awakened glad that I was going to work, glad that I was going to court, glad that I was going to grapple with a problem.

We recognize that violence is a learned behavior. One of the best classrooms for learning violence is in the home.

We cannot forget the need to use the law as a shield, but we must remember other forces of the law.

Diversity is valued, and it is prized. We learn to appreciate each other and each other's struggles. From diversity, we draw our enormous and our lasting strength.

I admire law enforcement agents who put their lives on the line to enforce the law while building trust and understanding within a community and around the world. I honor those who seek justice for all the people of this country.

Stereotypes should never influence policy or public opinion.

I think that affirmative action programs can be very important.

People should look at the government as 'us,' not as 'them' and not in terror.

I think that a woman's right to choose should be protected. I think it should be protected from physical conduct that prevents that right to choose from being freely exercised.

America, in all its institutions, whether it be the family or government, has forgotten and neglected its children.

Too many Americans mistrust their government. And unnecessary government secrecy feeds this mistrust.

The Bar Association can do so much in teaching people how to resolve conflicts without knives and guns and fists.

There may sometimes be a mistake, but I think that the citizens of America who are sworn to uphold their duty in a jury setting are going to try to do their best to do that regardless of the consequences.

A street criminal can steal only what he can carry, but with a stroke of a pen, the dialing of a telephone or the pushing of a computer key, the white collar criminal can and does steal billions.

One of the most important parts of my life has been community.

My father was born in Denmark. He came to this country when he was 12 years old.

Though the Attorney General of the United States carries many responsibilities and undertakes many tasks, there can be none more important than the pursuit of civil rights on behalf of all the people of this country.

Young people have such tremendous energy.

I would like to use the law of this land to do everything I possibly can to protect America's children from abuse and violence and to give to each of them the opportunity to grow to be strong, healthy and self-sufficient citizens of this country.

A cop by themselves on every corner is not going to make that much difference.

I think our young people are our most precious possession.

I collected child support in Dade County, and they wrote a rap song about me, so the kids knew about it, and they started asking me questions about child support. What happens if she wastes the money? What happens if he doesn't pay? And I answered the questions.

I didn't like the Feds coming to town when I was in Miami, telling me what to do. I didn't like them coming to town and thinking that they knew more about Miami than I do.