Top 125 Quotes & Sayings by Pete Buttigieg

I hope that teachings about inclusion and love win out over what I personally consider to be a handful of scriptures that reflect the moral expectations of the era in which they were recorded.

The old line of thought used to be that local government is the bush leagues.

I don't have to go on a tour to find out what's happening in middle America. I just go to Target.

When I was deployed, I could feel a full spectrum of American power keeping me safe. And yes, that was the armor on my vehicle; yes, it was the armor on my body; but it was also the armor of some level of American moral authority.

The challenge in confronting Trump is that there are certain things that he does that that you have to respond to, just morally. When he lies, you've got to correct the lie, which will keep you busy because he does it so often. When he does something wrong, you've got to point to it.

Greatness will come by looking forward - untethered from the politics of the past and anchored by our shared values - and by changing our nation's future.

You're not free if you can't sue a financial institution that gets caught ripping you off.

In my generation, thankfully, as somebody who served in the Afghanistan War, would have served in the Iraq War, if called to do so - was also strongly against the Iraq War, from the beginning - I'm so thankful that we live in a moment that we can honor the troops separately from policy.

Most people have trouble pronouncing my name, so they just call me 'Mayor Pete.'

Like anyone who follows politics, I am sometimes mesmerized by the twisted and relentless drama playing out in Washington. But I also know about the price of distraction - the consequences of our attention being diverted from how politics affects daily life.

It's time to join the ranks of nations that have put the ugliness of capital punishment behind them.

There's a lot to be said for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Safety and security are the most basic job of government. I understand that - both as a mayor who works every day to secure public safety and reduce crime, and also as someone who deployed in uniform to Afghanistan because I believed joining the military was part of my duty to help keep my country safe.

By high school, I had traded my oversized, thick glasses for contact lenses, but my eyesight was getting worse every year, smothering my childhood aspiration of becoming an astronaut or, at least, a pilot.

My surname, Buttigieg (Boot-edge-edge), is very common in my father's country of origin, the tiny island of Malta, and nowhere else.

The force that has come closest across American history to actually ending America was white supremacy. That was the Civil War.

Building a wall won't solve our border security challenges.

Wall-to-wall coverage of the political intrigue in Washington focuses on which Capitol Hill players won the daily news cycle, with barely any reference to the communities and lives where politicians' decisions actually hit home.

An election is supposed to be about our whole country - we can't just concentrate on those areas where people, for the most part, already agree with us.

So, I've learned - as a young Democrat, I've learned to think cautiously before offering advice to Nancy Pelosi.

My marriage to Chasten has made me a better man.

Tearing apart a community, a business, and a family will make America worse off, every time.

If you're a white candidate, it is twice as important for you to be talking about racial inequity and not just describing the problem - which is fashionable in politics - but actually talking about what we're going to do about it and describing the outcomes we're trying to solve for.

Being gay isn't something you choose, but you do face choices about whether and how to discuss it.

My understanding of my faith is that - through a Christian framework - part of what we are called to do is to lay down our own self-interests, after the model of divinity that comes into this world in the form of Christ and lays down his life. And in order to do that, you have to care about something or someone more than yourself.

I am not skilled enough or energetic enough to craft a persona. I just have to be who I am and hope people like it.

When I was fourteen, Mom and Dad sent me to St. Joseph High School, the Catholic school up the hill from our place, housed in a 1950s-era tan brick building sometimes confused for a light industrial structure due to the surprisingly high smokestack of its old incinerator.

So much of what Christ's teachings are about have to do with the way that we take care of the least among us.

The background of a mayor of a city of any size is a background of somebody who on one hand is an executive and on the other hand is very close to the ground.

People in communities like Granger, Indiana, are rarely heard from on cable networks. But they, too, believe it is wrong to deport friends and neighbors who do no harm and much good.

When you become a citizen, you are an American and questioning somebody's Americanness because they disagree with you - is about one of the most un-American things I can think of.

Our right to practice our faith freely is respected up to the point where doing so involves harming others.

As the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, I see on a daily basis the impact of politics and policy on my family, neighbors, friends, and residents.

You're not free if you can't marry the person you love because a county clerk is imposing his or her interpretation of religion on you.

What's worse: a president who is very faithful to an ideology that you find extreme, or a president who is very cynical and appears to have no ideology at all? Neither one of those things is great.

You're not free if you can't start a small business because you fear losing your health care, and you're certainly not free if a male boss or politician prevents you from making decisions about your own reproductive health.

The first news event I understood as a small child was the loss of the space shuttle Challenger, which President Reagan eloquently mourned from the Oval that evening.

In many ways, Trump appeals to people's smallness, their fears, whatever part of them wants to look backward.

I am a Democrat because I believe in protecting freedom, fairness, families, and the future.

I think a lot about intergenerational justice. Short-term versus long-term helps to explain a lot of the policy disagreements that happen between the parties, and I would argue that in most ways, we are the party with more long-term thinking.

'Palaces for the People' reads more like a succession of case studies than a comprehensive account of what social infrastructure is, so those looking for a theoretical framework may be disappointed.

On this National Immigration Day of Action, it is worth remembering that it's not just Americans in New York or Los Angeles who believe that we need a more humane and rational system.

Physically robust infrastructure is not enough if it fails to foster a healthy community; ultimately, all infrastructure is social.

The Electoral College needs to go, because it's made our society less and less democratic.

'Freedom' means a lot to conservatives, but they have such a narrow sense of what it means. They think a lot about freedom from - freedom from government, freedom from regulation - and precious little about freedom to. Freedom to is absolutely something that has to be safeguarded by good government, just as it could be impaired by bad government.

In 'Palaces for the People,' Eric Klinenberg offers a new perspective on what people and places have to do with each other, by looking at the social side of our physical spaces.

I've always been terrible at land navigation.

As Democrats and progressives look to the future, we should remember our most essential values.

Our neighborhoods are safer when there is trust between communities and the police who are in charge of protecting them.

I think people in our party tie themselves up in pretzels trying to be more electable.

Those of us who work in politics can only make ourselves useful if our heads are filled with things that we can contribute to the political space.

Presidents going live from the Oval Office have used that platform to inform the American public, and also to do one of the most important parts of their job: to inspire the best in us.

I'm proud of who I am. I am proud of my husband and our marriage.

I just feel more comfortable with my sleeves rolled up.

Being attentive to the things that add meaning to our lives alongside politics will help us inform our politics with the values that really do make America great.

In local government, it's very clear to your customers - your citizens - whether or not you're delivering. Either that pothole gets filled in, or it doesn't. The results are very much on display, and that creates a very healthy pressure to innovate.

I think there's a lot to be said for changing the balance of what we tax: wealth versus work.

I kept up top grades, and by senior year, a flow of mailed college recruiting brochures accumulated into an avalanche on our dining room table.

Tunisians are very friendly.

Being the mayor of your hometown is the best job in America, partly because it's relatively nonpartisan - we focus on results, not ideology.