Top 51 Quotes & Sayings by Walter F. Mondale

Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American lawyer Walter F. Mondale.

Last updated on April 21, 2025.

Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 42nd vice president of the United States from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter. A U.S. senator from Minnesota from 1964 to 1976, he was the Democratic Party's nominee in the 1984 presidential election, but lost to incumbent Ronald Reagan in an Electoral College and popular vote landslide. Reagan won 49 states while Mondale carried his home state of Minnesota and the District of Columbia. His vice presidential nominee, U.S. Representative Geraldine Ferraro from New York, was the first female vice-presidential nominee of any major party in U.S. history.

American - Lawyer | Born: January 5, 1928

Source: Wikipedia

There's no question that history will record that I took a helluva shellacking.

Walter F. Mondale

I don't want to spend the next two years in Holiday Inns.

Walter F. Mondale

We have no right to poison, to eat up, to chew, to pollute this wonderful country of ours. We are required to save it and purify it and protect it.

Walter F. Mondale

The view of how America speaks is reflected in our laws. And one of the laws is fair housing. It very clearly prohibits discrimination in the sale and rental of housing in America. It's been a sad fact of American life that the practice in many communities has been quite the opposite.

Walter F. Mondale

One of the phenomenons of American political life is that it all stops one day. One day, you've got 200 reporters and cameras, and everybody is hanging on you. And three days later, you're alone. And it's quite a transition.

Walter F. Mondale

What do we want our kids to do? Sweep up around Japanese computers?

Walter F. Mondale

We believe in a solid, just, compassionate, hopeful future. That's why I'm in politics. That's why I'm running for president. And that's why I'm going to win!

Walter F. Mondale

Running for President is physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually the most demanding single undertaking I can envisage unless it's World War III.

Walter F. Mondale

What some people argue is that Vietnam stands for the proposition that there's no role for American power anywhere on earth. I don't believe that's the case at all. I think we're the strongest force for democracy and for stability on earth, and we must have a strong capacity to perform that role.

Walter F. Mondale

I earned my spurs in the civil rights movement. All my life, not for political but for religious reasons, moral reasons, that's where I've been, and I'm proud of it, and I'll always be there.

Walter F. Mondale

I believe in the Camp David accords.

Walter F. Mondale

Pick somebody who knows what it's like to live on an average income and to deal with the problems that most Americans face. Pick somebody who's traveled this country and who will remember who put him in the White House - not to be a king but to be a public servant.

Walter F. Mondale

I said I didn't want to spend most of my life in Holidays Inns, but I've checked and they've all been redecorated. They're marvelous places to stay and I've thought it over and that's where I'd like to be.

Walter F. Mondale

The more the American people see the sharp differences between Mr. Reagan and me and the visions we have of our future, the better off the American people will be.

Walter F. Mondale

I will not lobby. I will not be an influence-type lawyer. I'm a professional lawyer.

Walter F. Mondale

When I was a young man, I used to dream maybe someday I could be an alderman. Instead of that I became an attorney general, a senator, a vice president, a Democratic nominee.

Walter F. Mondale

In our system, at about 11:30 on election night, they just push you off the edge of the cliff-and that's it. You might scream on the way down, but you're going to hit the bottom, and you're not going to be in elective office.

Walter F. Mondale

Modern politics today requires a mastery of television. I've never really warmed up to television and, in fairness to television, it's never warmed up to me.

Walter F. Mondale

I believe there were things I probably should have done differently. But I'm not going to spend a lot of time crying over spilt milk.

Walter F. Mondale

Do you want to tear your life apart and get rid of everything you've known as a lifestyle? Like seeing your family? Being with your friends? A fishing trip? A hunting trip? A night's sleep?

Walter F. Mondale

The overarching problem is one of the survival of humanity in the face of the growing nuclear menace. If those bombs go off, nothing else would matter.

Walter F. Mondale

The course of nationalism, once it's attached to a cause opposite yours, is still the strongest force in the world.

Walter F. Mondale

If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused.

Walter F. Mondale

There's a lot of bad consequences that flow from segregation. The kids don't do as well. We live separately. We don't learn about each other. We're all Americans. And yet, we separate based on, basically, race. And I believe it's got to stop.

Walter F. Mondale

I have no doubt the Japanese leadership and most Japanese see the importance of a strong U.S.-Japan relationship. I certainly have no doubt that the American view is the same.

Walter F. Mondale

Obviously, the domestic need is to shape an economic policy that assures long-term healthy economic growth and a reassertion of American competitiveness in international competition.

Walter F. Mondale

President Reagan likes to say Uncle Sam is a kindly old man with a spine of steel, and that he is. But I want to see Uncle Sam as well with a mind and with a heart and with a soul and a conscience.

Walter F. Mondale

I believe that Reagan's a radical on arms control.

Walter F. Mondale

I think we need a public, strategic, cooperative relationship with Israel.

Walter F. Mondale

I will end the lawlessness that's destroying our environment. I will take polluters to court, not to lunch.

Walter F. Mondale

The most important thing I would do is to try to institutionalize U.S.-Soviet summits.

Walter F. Mondale

I think the Reagan people are superb marketers. Their whole approach to polling, to television, to the symbolism and the rest approaches genius.

Walter F. Mondale

My father was a minister, and my mother was a music teacher.

Walter F. Mondale

I've traveled more this year than any other living human being, and if I'd traveled any more I wouldn't be living.

Walter F. Mondale

By instinct and tradition, I don't like the thing. I like to look someone in the eye.

Walter F. Mondale

Whatever his private beliefs and religious practice, a president must be the guardian of the laws which ensure America's religious diversity.

Walter F. Mondale

You have got to be careful quoting Ronald Reagan, because when you quote him accurately it is called mudslinging.

Walter F. Mondale

Bill Proxmire represents almost the last of one of America's most remarkable generations.

Walter F. Mondale

The idea behind Reaganomics is this: a rising tide lifts all yachts.

Walter F. Mondale

Political image is like mixing cement. When it's wet, you can move it around and shape it, but at some point it hardens and there's almost nothing you can do to reshape it.

Walter F. Mondale

There will be no veterans of World War III.

Walter F. Mondale

Tomorrow, I'm going to a soup kitchen in Mobile. I think that will symbolize the insensitivity of this administration to human needs.

Walter F. Mondale

Let's tell the truth. Mr. Reagan will raise taxes, and so will I. He won't tell you. I just did.

Walter F. Mondale

Do not despair. In every defeat are found the seeds of victory.

Walter F. Mondale

I've seen the film. And I'll tell you this, I'm glad Chuck Yeager isn't running for President.

Walter F. Mondale

Today, the religion clauses of the First Amendment do not need to be fixed; they need to be followed.

Walter F. Mondale

Gun bans don't disarm criminals, gun bans attract them.

Walter F. Mondale

It could well be the end of justice in America. Do not let Mr. Reagan get his hands on that court.

Walter F. Mondale

[Running for President is] physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually the most demanding single undertaking I can envisage unless it's World War III

Walter F. Mondale

Who is ready to be a truly independent representative of Minnesota? Who is free of entangling alliances and big money that allows them to represent? What do we need -- that sort of person who can truly independently represent Minnesota, or something else?.

Walter F. Mondale

The Queen of England is Defender of the Faith but the President of the United States is Defender of the Constitution, which defends all faiths.

Walter F. Mondale