Dick Cheney Quotes

It is no secret that I believe my son, Attorney General Beau Biden would make a great United States Senator - just as I believe he has been a great Attorney General. But Beau has made it clear from the moment he entered public life, that any office he sought, he would earn on his own.

I would rather have a full term in the Senate—a place in which I would feel more consciously able to discharge the duties required, and where there is more chance to make a reputation, and less danger of losing it than four years of the presidency.

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.

My childhood dream was to be prime minister.

You could be a senior senator and have never managed more than a hundred people in your life.

Elective office and public service are obviously something that have long ties with my family, and something I'm definitely interested in.

I grew up thinking that if I wanted to go be prime minister, I could.

I loved being in the Senate. That was a wonderful experience.

Rock stars generally don't last in the Senate, starting with John Kennedy. Too much work, too slow, too little juice. Getting something accomplished takes a remarkable amount of tedious work. Rock stars who become senators either run for something else or retire on the job. They certainly don't make a mark.

I've been a speaker. I've been a majority leader. I've been a minority leader. Those are the sort of things I don't need any more.

You don’t become a statesman unless you are first a good politician.

Being a politician is a calling second only to being a minister.

I have been a civil servant and a politician for over 30 years.

Without question, my grandfather's example of public service throughout his life inspired Dad later to run for office himself. Wherever he went, whatever he did, Prescott Bush had plenty of admirers.

It would be wonderful to be a member of the United States Senate.

I spent three years working at the White House and wanted to do something that wasn't about passing bills and resolutions.

I'm not into politics. I have received offers to enter politics, but I have not been tempted so far. I can't say about the future.

I'm not one of the people who have to be in public office.

I was on leave from local and regional politics, as long as I was a Minister.

School boards can be a steppingstone to higher forms of political leadership.

Politicians also have no leisure, because they are always aiming at something beyond political life itself, power and glory, or happiness.

I'm not terribly focused on whether I even could ever become the Leader of the Liberal Party or the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party in the future.

Going into politics is something people have asked me about forever.

When I entered politics, I took the only downward turn you could take from journalism.

I don't want to become Washington.