John Thune Quotes

In the spring of 1994 I decided not to seek reelection to the Senate. I had made the decision 12 years earlier, Christmas Day of 1982, just after I had been first elected to a full term, that I would do the best I could for a limited time.

My firm belief is that people who aspire to public service should have the best advice up front, as they decide whether to run and the people decide whether to support them.

I am continuing to explore a run in the Senate from Connecticut, absolutely exploring it. In fact, I would say exploring it intensely.

As it became clear that Senator Rubio was likely to run for president, I received encouragement to consider running for the Senate.

When I finished my term, I thought about running for governor then but decided not to because, frankly, I didn't think I was ready. I wasn't comfortable that I was prepared to do the job.

I have been immeasurably honored to serve the people of Maine for nearly 40 years in public office and for the past 17 years in the United States Senate. It was incredibly difficult to decide that I would not seek a fourth term in the Senate.

If I wanted to be president of the United States, I'd run for the Senate in 1986. And I'm just not going to do it.

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 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.

I've been doing nineteen hours a day on London, nothing else, I mean this has been my whole life, and writing has been put on one side, and if I'm privileged enough to be the Mayor of this city, then I will not write again.

Joe Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972 at age 30. Somewhere around 1992, he should have had to go out and get a real job.

[Warren] Harding didn't like being a Senator; he liked being in the Senate.

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.

If you'd said to me when I was 21, 'You're going to get into parliament, be a senior minister of state, shadow health secretary, shadow home secretary, a privy councillor, be endorsed by the Times as a candidate for Speaker, have four novels published, and then have great fun after you retire,' I'd have said, 'That sounds like a good life.'

I have no regrets in going into politics or leaving the Tollywood for a while.

I've decided to get into active politics on Narendra Modiji's request. I don't know how successful I will be, but I'll give it my best shot.

Hillary Clinton's time in the Senate indicates she is happier being a policy workhorse than a show horse.

I didn't want to be a senator, but I considered it anyway.

While I loved aspects of the law, my upbringing had shown me that in politics, you could make policy decisions that actually changed people's lives - so I made my decision, and ran for my father's old seat.

Contrary to what people say, my wife never turned me away from the presidency. She told me to reflect on it and do what I wanted.

I am aware of the responsibility I am taking on as the chancellor. Things have developed very quickly for me in recent years, but they didn't happen from one day to the next. I have more than six years of experience in government. I took the decision to run as a candidate very seriously. In May, I decided to change the Austrian People's Party and to start a broad-based movement aimed at changing this country for the better.

It wasn't until 1998 that I ever seriously thought about running for office. And I didn't make up my mind to do that until 1999, and then I ran for the Senate. It was really hard for me.

I'm always looking for a way to serve the nation, but I don't believe that it will be as vice president and I'm really not seeking it, I'm not requesting it and it won't happen.

The member of Congress who is not making a career of politics looks quite differently at the world.

[J.F Kennedy] was a congressman and a senator and he would go on to be president. I had that idea as a little boy, and I used to joke to people but nobody told me that his father was ambassador to England and that he was a war hero, and he was, you know.