Booker T Quotes

I would like to run for the mayor of the city of Chicago. That has always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives.

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

If I want to continue to build the kind of effort we have with Do Something, being in a public office would help. I wouldn't rule it out, but it's not something I feel determined to do.

My mother at the age of 65 decided she was going to run for mayor. She had never run for public office, and she decided she wanted to try and do some things for the community.

I thought I'd grow up to be a teacher, or maybe run for political office.

I had the chance to be governor for eight years and I took a year to transition out and a year to transition in, so that's a decade of my life where I pursued my own ambitions and I thought it was time to rearrange my life to focus on other things.

My father was in Congress when I was born. He was mayor my whole life from when I was in grade school - first grade - to when I went away to college.

I’m the first to say that I’ve no idea what I’m doing. There is no manual here for how to be mayor.

Once you've been a mayor, you look to try to get things done.

I may be leaving the Senate, but the next chapter in my public service is just beginning.

I knew I would work in a community that I would like to live in, but I had no idea that I would ever go into politics, even though some of my classmates thought I would.

I would not run for president. I really like what I'm doing now. People say I'm giving them energy and hope.

At the moment I am a little bit politician, yes. I think that could be my next step. It is not because I want power, it is because of what I think I could do for the people.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.

I've also said you don't rule any options out, because if you are in public life because you want to make a difference... obviously, you have to be open to those kind of possibilities.

Public life is regarded as the crown of a career, and to young men it is the worthiest ambition. Politics is still the greatest and the most honorable adventure.

I'm not going to lie to you: being Speaker of the State Assembly is the best job I've ever had in my entire career. But you know, I got into politics 'cause I wanted to make a difference, and I was always raised that one person could make a difference.

I love being the mayor. I want to be the mayor forever.

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

I'm not sure I had a political career for the future anyway. I'm not sure that politics was what I wanted to spend my life doing.

I always wanted to become president! When I was a kid, I was obsessed with politics.

There has to be life after the Charlotte Mayor's office.

I want to run for the Senate from Tennessee. Not now, but when I'm 50, when music dies down a little bit. I know lots of artists and actors have those delusions of grandeur, but ever since I was a kid, it's been of interest to me.

My brother is the former mayor of Baltimore.

I never doubted that I would be a good mayor. I never did.