Tom Coburn Quotes

My goal was never to get re-elected.

Once it becomes impossible for members of Congress to make a career of legislative service, the temptation to bend a vote for whatever reason may yield to the better angels of their nature.

Since politics fundamentally should be a moral enterprise, the church in this sense has something to say about politics.

I took charge of the government as per my commitment to serving the country and the people, and not out of any greed for yet another post.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

A politician is well-qualified if his promises are, too.

All politics is an extension of ethics ... We cannot leave out conscience at the caucus room door.

Public men rarely keep their promises to retire from public life.

Those who would treat politics and morality apart will never understand the one or the other.

What good would politics be, if it didn’t give everyone the opportunity to make moral compromises?

What gets you out of bed in the morning? This is a question I'm often asked as a politician. It tends to be closely followed by a dozen other questions about what I'll do in 'x' scenario or whether I'll resign if 'y' happens.

My personal code of conduct and compliance with a wide range of government ethics provisions have ensured that I have maintained ethical standards.

I think that has to do with our perception of politics. There are nice politicians. There is something about this job that does take an extra bit of motivation to get out of bed in the morning.

Hillary Clinton was personally presiding over the dissolution of moral authority - particularly applied to presidents - because she looked the other way, because she tolerated it.

And I must believe that man has the power to know the right, to choose between good and evil and know that his choice has made a difference.

Let me just say this, and I want to say this to the televison audience: I made my mistakes, but in all of my years of public life, I have never profited, never profited from public service

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

It is as easy for most of us to keep from stealing our dinners as it is to digest them, and there is quite as much voluntary morality involved in one process as the other.

The scientist is not responsible for the laws of nature. It is his job to find out how these laws operate. It is the scientist's job to find the ways in which these laws can serve the human will. However, it is not the scientist's job to determine whether a hydrogen bomb should be constructed, whether it should be used, or how it should be used. This responsibility rests with the American people and with their chosen representatives.

We want accountability. We just buried a president [President Gerald Ford] who did not hold another president [President Nixon] accountable for war crimes and that's why we're in Iraq right now. Our leaders who get us into these messes are the ones who need to be held accountable.

Real power is control. Knowing that you can do anything...and not doing it only because you can.

There will be no surprises and no excuses from a Coalition government, Barrie.

Stands must be taken. If I am to respect myself I have to search myself for what I believe is right and take a stand on what I find. Otherwise, I have not gathered together what I have been given; I have not embraced what I have learned; I lack my own conviction.

For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears.

We didn't think much in the air corps of a fellow who wangled a cushy job out of his C.O. by buttering him up. It was hard for me to believe that God thought much of a man who tried to wangle salvation by fulsome flattery. I should have thought the worship most pleasing to him was to do your best according to your lights.