Top 136 Quotes & Sayings by Lindsey Graham

It's one thing to shoot yourself in the foot. Just don't reload the gun.

The Afghan security forces will always have the help of the U.S. American military to ensure that Afghanistan never fails.

You know, the commander-in-chief's first responsibility is look out for those in uniform who fight the wars.

If you increase taxes now on - at any level, it's going to make it harder to create jobs And we've lost 2 1/2 million jobs since the stimulus package passed. We're at 9.6 unemployment. So I don't think we tax too little, I think we spend too much.

Today, I'm 60, I'm not married, I don't have any kids. I would give up some Social Security to save a system that Americans are going to depend on now and in the future.

The healthcare bill not only is a monstrosity in terms of growing the government and cutting out the private sector, the way it was passed was sleazy. Every old Washington trick was used to pass the healthcare bill.

Iran is part of the problem, not the solution. And the Russian government is ignoring reality.

The American consumer is also the American worker, and if we don't do something to protect our manufacturing base here at home, it is going to be hard to buy any retail goods.

Look how many millions of people are underemployed or have lost their jobs. The last thing I'm going to do is play politics with their future.

If you make me your president, I'm going to put the country ahead of the party. I'm going to do what it takes to defend this nation. This nation has been great to me, and that's the only way I know to pay you back.

Iraq is falling apart.

Well, thank God for a media that will ask questions.

We've got fifty people at Gitmo that are too dangerous to be let go that will never go through a normal criminal trial. Let's create a new legal system, so they'll have their day in court.

We need somebody ready to be commander-in-chief on day one, who understands there are no moderates in Iran; they've been killed a long time ago.

We don't have a lot of Reagan-type leaders in our party. Remember Ronald Reagan Democrats? I want a Republican that can attract Democrats.

I dare say there may be some men and women in the Armed Forces who are so decent that they would say: Give the Iraqi people money, we do not want to be paid back. That is the strength of our country.

The sooner we get started with alternative energy sources and recognize that fossil fuels makes us less secure as a nation, and more dangerous as a planet, the better off we'll be.

I don't think it's rational for a country to try to kill the Saudi Arabian ambassador in a restaurant in Washington.

We need a president who can solve our problems, bring us together. We're becoming Greece if we don't work together.

At the end of the day, Mitt Romney and Ann Romney are two fine people.

This idea of holding the Defense Department hostage to the tax debate makes me sick to my stomach. Knock it off.

President Obama chose politics over leadership. 'Hope' and 'Change' have become bait-and-switch.

No employer is going to hire robustly until they know what the health care cost is going to be.

I think no one has ever been re-elected with unemployment over 7.6 percent.

A healthy environment, a strong economy and energy independent America - that would be the purpose of my presidency, is break the strangle hold that people enjoy on fossil fuels who hate our guts.

I'm the ranking Republican on the foreign aid appropriations subcommittee, so I know Tunisia well.

It puts limits on criminals' rights to destroy unborn children without the permission of the woman.

President Bush has shown great leadership. He has said that the 21st century will not be ruled or dictated by terrorists, dictators, and murderers. He is absolutely right. God bless him for his resolve.

I don't blame anybody for using the tax code to their advantage.

When it comes to fossil fuels, we're going to find more here and use less. Over time, we're going to become energy independent. I am tired of sending $300 billion overseas to buy oil from people who hate our guts. The choice between a weak economy and a strong environment is a false choice, that is not the choice I'll offer America.

We're going to lose Social Security and Medicare if Republicans and Democrats do not come together and find a solution like Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill. I will be the Ronald Reagan if I can find a Tip O'Neill.

The intelligence community gets hurt through sequestration.

Thank God for some Republican control of one branch of the government.

Well, the big elephant in the whole system is the baby boomer generation that marches through like a herd of elephants. And we begin to retire in 2008.

Detainee policy in this war is hard, it's complicated, but we must get it right. We would be better off as a nation if we could close Gitmo safely and start a new prison that he could use that the world would see as a better way to doing business.

The legal system in Afghanistan is very immature and porous.

We have gutted our ability to detect the next attack. And I would not stand for that as president of the United States.

Conservatives have a different view of a lot of issues versus our friends on the other side. The election determines how that shakes out.

If 'Obama-care' becomes fully implemented in 2014, it's going to bankrupt states.

According to the FBI and the director of national intelligence, Syria's becoming a perfect platform to strike our nation. I've got a very simple strategy as your president against ISIL. Whatever it takes, as long as it takes, to defeat them.

We're failing when it comes to controlling spending.

The president of the United States let the consulate in Libya become a death trap.

What's going on in the Senate is kind of a politics of escalation. We're getting sort of like the Mideast: pay back everybody when you're in charge.

We will never win this war until we understand the effect that Guantanamo Bay has had on the overall war effort. And we'll never get the support of the American people if we can't prove to them that these folks that we're dealing with are not common criminals. We're going to keep them - keep you safe from them.

You want to see a war on women? Come with me to Iraq and Afghanistan, folks. I've been there 35 times. I will show you what they do to women.

Why did we go to war? Why did we pick people from South Carolina, California, and all the places in between to go to a foreign land and risk their lives and have some die? To make sure that Saddam Hussein could do no more damage to the region or us than he has already done.

The courtroom is a quiet place, Judge Roberts, where you park your political ideology, and you call the balls and you call the strikes.

There's a lot of things we can do to balance out what Obama's done and going forward show the American people the Republican Party can govern. I want a coalition of tea party people, independents, moderate Democrats trying to find a way to move this country forward before we become Greece.

Social Security must be preserved and strengthened. But we need to be candid about the costs and willing to make the tough choices that real reform will require.

The politics of judges is getting to be red hot.

Al Qaeda is alive and well in Libya, Iraq, Syria and the wars are not receding.

It's really American to avoid paying taxes, legally.

We cannot win this war on terror if people are undercutting us. And one way to undercut us is to empower Iran.

We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.

Some people say I'm too blunt and I'm too direct, too straightforward. I think we could use some of that in Washington, D.C.

Donald Trump has gone from making absurd comments to being downright dangerous with his bombastic rhetoric.

My party is going bat (EXPLETIVE DELETED) crazy.

For 40 years, the American middle class has been disappearing. Millions of people are working longer hours for lower wages despite a huge increase in technology and productivity. And what we have seen during that period is a massive transfer of trillions of dollars from the middle class to the top one-tenth of 1 percent of America

The only sin I think a commander in chief can make is exaggerating successes and not understanding the challenges.

The world is literally about to blow up.