Bruce Babbitt Quotes

I don't want to run for governor, but I don't think anyone should put public service out of the question because that's not what a good citizen does.

I am extremely proud to have the honour and privilege to be the Premier of this great state of Victoria.

For you will seem either not to esteem government worth much, or to think few worthy to hold it.

While not all politicians are statesmen, all statesmen are politicians.

As the leaders of this great country, I urge my fellow colleagues in the House, governors, and presidential candidates alike to hold ourselves up to a higher standard.

I prepared to be president. And I think that's a good thing.

If you're going to say you're Catholic, you inform your conscience so that you're activities will conform to what God is telling us through the Church. If God is telling you something outside of that, well, the Church will look at that and say: we think it is true or we don't think it is true. The Church might say: that might be true for you but it has no public normative value.

The best state is that in which bad men are not allowed to hold office, and good men are not allowed to refuse office.

You have to decide what those issues are for you. What do you think disqualifies a person from holding public office? I believe that the endorsement of the right to kill unborn children disqualifies a person from any position of public office. It's simply the same as saying that the endorsement of racism, fraud, or bribery, would disqualify him - except that child-killing is more serious than those.

I don't think we do a great job in America any more of distinguishing between campaigns and governance. We live in an environment that's all campaign all of the time and it's helpful, now that we've moved beyond a campaign and an election to get into a governance posture.

I don't want to be the mayor of New Jersey.

If you're in Congress, you vote and give speeches. But governors have to make decisions every day, and presidents have to make decisions every day.

As mayor, I'm charged with a big-picture agenda.

I was not in the race to become a chief minister. I had never thought about it.

If you believe, as I do, that the scope and range of presidential authority is great, that puts a lot of weight on the civic virtue and decency of the individual who holds the office.

I'm intrigued by being in public office.

I vote my conscience first and my constituents next, regardless of the direction of our leadership.

The CDU is willing to continue to take responsibility for our country. We want to do justice to the government mandate.

I think of Martin Luther King phrase a lot when I'm deciding public issues. He said: "Here I stand: I can do no other." It is basically an affirmation of my ultimate responsibility to obey my conscience in my acts as a public official.

Those who imagine that a politician would make a better figurehead than a hereditary monarch might perhaps make the acquaintance of more politicians.

I think an appeal to American idealism and willingness to sacrifice would be an important contribution, because what is happening now in many countries, not yet in the United States, but in many European countries, it's the inability of government to ask for sacrifices of its people.

If enough Americans determine I could do a better job in public office, and Mrs. Nugent and my beloved family agree, there is no limit what I am willing to do for my country.

There are always going to be people who want to be president, and some days I'd like to give it to them.

I'm offering myself up. I'm saying that if I have the background, the capability and the concern to do this and I'm doing this for the right reasons... but I'm not particularly interested in running for president, but I think I'd make a good president. Nowadays, the process has become much more important than I think it used to be.

So as far as leadership and patriotism goes, I think it's really important that those things have to take place. And I think he's the best Democratic candidate we've had since Bill Clinton. And that's coming from a Democrat.