Barry Goldwater Quotes

Donald Rumsfeld and Nelson Rockefeller were put on this planet to piss each other off.

Activity in politics also produces eager competition and sharp rivalry.

The American system is so constituted that it produces a conflict between the Executive and Congress every time the Executive tries to be positive and strong.

So you want this fucking job.

Screw the cabinet and the rest of those. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve made the speech now and let the rest of them – if they like it, fine. But no more suckin’ around. From now on they come to me. I’m sick of the whole bunch.

I wasn’t addressing you, Mr. President.

I just wish that he had just one time run for dog catcher.

Political rivalry is one thing but personal smear campaigns scrape the barrel of political infighting.

In 2009, 2010, the Obama people were the ones mad at me.

This Middle East thing is maddening.

Beloved. You are as brave a man as Harry Truman—or FDR—or Lincoln. You can go on to find some peace, some achievement amidst all the pain. You have been strong, patient, determined beyond any words of mine to express …. To step out now would be wrong for our country, and I can see nothing but a wasteland for your future. Your friends would be frozen in embarrassed silence and your enemies jeering.

So what you do is you just reach up there and grab that lever [in the voting booth] and say, "All the way with LBJ.

When I cannot get the President to read my reports, then its time to go.

If you feel so strongly about it, why don't you make it an issue and run against me.

One interest must be opposed to another interest. Vices, as they exist, must be turned against each other.

In the fullness of time, every President ends up hating his Vice President.

Lyndon Johnson was perhaps the greatest political arm twister in the country’s history.

You tell that imperial bastard in Mississippi to keep out of Louisiana. Tell that son of a bitch that I am not just using an expression; I am referring to the circumstances of his birth.

No sane person with a life really wants to be a political activist. When activism is exciting, it tends to involve the risk of bodily harm or incarceration, and when it's safe, it is often tedious, dry, and boring. Activism tends to put one into contact with extremely unpleasant people, whether they are media interviewers, riot cops, or at times, your fellow activists. Not only that, it generates enormous feelings of frustration and rage, makes your throat sore from shouting, and hurts your feet.

[Referring to LBJ:] ... one of the few politicians with whom I found it uncomfortable to be in the same room.

My old friend Judge Johnson used to say, "The Presidency is unlike the Kingdom of Heaven—those who seek shall never find.

… the most famous ad produced in the history of political television

I am sick of answering questions about the fucking peace process.

I’ll whip his ass!

Mo Udall wanted to run for president [in 1976] in the worst way ... and he did.