Ted Wheeler Quotes

I am a patriot. I would think there are no politicians who are not patriots. Since I am a politician, I often get criticized as I try to exercise what I believe to be right. However, if you mind such criticism, I think you can't protect people's lives.

I think we need people in Washington who really have more of a sense of a George Washington approach to it, which is to serve and go home. I think far too many of both parties see it as a career. And I don't think that's good for our country.

I think Alaskans expect me to think, to think about them and do the right thing for them.

I believe strongly that when you have political capital, you should use it in a manner that helps improve the human condition. You shouldn't just compile power and hold onto power for power's sake.

My grandfather Prescott passed down the idea that you would only run for office after you had built a financial base - then it was time to give back and go into public service.

I never had an interest in being a mayor ’cause that’s a real job. You have to produce. That’s why I was able to be a senator for 36 years.

The last person to trust with power is someone who is dying to have it. The best person to wield power is someone who is reluctant to do so, but who will do it for a while as a civic duty. That is why term limits should make it impossible to have a whole career in politics.

From church to Congress, America has become a nation of self-indulgent, what's-in-it-for-me individual freedom seekers.

Once you're in the House for a few terms, it's hard to leave.

If I went into politics, my parents would turn over in their graves. It’s not as respected a profession as many others.

I have an obligation to the people of Illinois, to the Senate and to myself to leave the Senate while I am still eager to serve, not after I tire of serving.

To what higher station, to what greater glory can any mortal aspire, than to be, during the whole course of his life, the support of good, the control of bad government, and the guardian of public liberty?

The leader is supposed to represent the community, the public good. He's supposed to be the focal point and the guide and the inspiration, and to represent a concern for the public good. The trouble is, the tragic problem is, very often, when you are a leader and pursue the public good, it may be at the expense of your private interests in a very drastic way

Governing the people's affairs is one of the greatest religious obligations.

A minister of state is excusable for the harm he does when the helm of government has forced his hand in a storm; but in the calm he is guilty of all the good he does not do.

He serves his party best who serves the county best.

Every kind of service necessary to the public good becomes honorable by becoming necessary.

It is time that we labored for the happiness of the people. Legislators who are to bring light and order into the world must pursue their course with inexorable tread, fearless and unswerving as the sun.

The very essence of a free government consists in considering offices as public trusts, bestowed for the good of the country, and not for the benefit of an individual or party.

There is a higher duty than that we owe political party.

I've worked since taking a newspaper route at age 9 and served as a prosecutor, a planning commissioner, a city councilman, and a congressman to pay back some of what my community and nation gave me.

It is a privilege to serve the country in the United States Senate and serve the people of New Hampshire. I wake up every day with a sense of purpose.

If you're governor of a state, and you have nothing to say when the president attacks the people that you represent, you are complicit.

It is our job, our responsibility as their representatives to help them. If we choose not to do that, we should not be their representatives.

We have a moral duty to have an efficient government.