Lionel Murphy Quotes

It would be wonderful to be a member of the United States Senate.

I loved being in the Senate. That was a wonderful experience.

I'm not serving in office because I desperately needed 99 new friends in the U.S. Senate.

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

Congress is the great commanding theater of this nation, and the threshold to whatever department of office a man is qualified to enter.

It's incredibly flattering to be a U.S. senator, which I want to stay at for a long time.

You can't go to Washington as a congressman and a senator and expect to make a difference all at once. You have to earn your way.

My childhood dream was to be prime minister.

I like the House. The House is where you can effect the most change. It's such a fast-moving dynamic body compared to the Senate.

If I only had 12 years left to live, I'd want to live it as a member of Congress because that was the 12 longest years of my life.

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.

A law is simply a reflection of the momentary perception of self-interest by a majority of a legislative body.

I love serving in the government. I love serving in the Senate.

When I was a young man, I used to dream maybe someday I could be an alderman. Instead of that I became an attorney general, a senator, a vice president, a Democratic nominee.

Having a path to elected office was never the goal for me.

I want to become prime minister.

I mean getting into parliament was quite an achievement in itself and then I have to pinch myself at the thought of actually running a department.

It's like going into the Senate. You know, the first time you get there, you're all excited, 'My God, how did I ever get here?' Then, about six months later, you say, 'How the hell did the rest of them get here?'

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 grew up thinking that if I wanted to go be prime minister, I could.

We work for the families back home, we do not work for the lobbyists that prowl the halls of the capital building, do not forget who we work for.

I have no ambitions to be a cabinet minister, or prime minister. I wouldn't wish being prime minister on my worst enemy.

Five years ago, when I was elected, I had the feeling that the president doesn't have much to do. I've realized, though, that this is not a rubber-stamp position.

He took pride in belonging to the world's most exclusive club: the United States Senate.

Rock stars generally don't last in the Senate, starting with John Kennedy. Too much work, too slow, too little juice. Getting something accomplished takes a remarkable amount of tedious work. Rock stars who become senators either run for something else or retire on the job. They certainly don't make a mark.