Bill Bennett Quotes

Whatever America hopes to bring to pass in this world must first come to pass in the heart of America.

Patriotism demands the ability to feel shame as much as to feel pride.

Know the difference between principles based on right or wrong vs. principles based on personal gain, and consider the basis of your own principles.

Looking back, I am ashamed that I have not always upheld the values that I profess and believe in.

There's an appeal to the American sense of exceptionalism, that we're morally superior, as way to not be self-critical. I think that's a bit dangerous.

I am not blind to the shortcomings of our own people.

In a sense I've made the same film over and over again. In all of them I've asked, 'Who are we as Americans?

This is a nation that has lost the ability to be self-critical, and that makes a lie out of the freedoms.

I was very proud of you and your vote on the McCarran Bill. I wish I could say the same for myself.

When moral principles, rather than persons, are candidates for power, to vote is to perform a moral duty, and not to vote is to neglect a duty

We Arabs have always been talking about America and the flaws in its democracy. But it’s high time that we talked about our own illnesses.

Politicians may do as they please, so long as they violate no rule of right, no principle of justice, no law of God; but in no world, in no order, or condition, have men the right to do wrong.

Some voices are calling on America to circle the wagons. Some are even saying that our enemies do worse, so we should respond in kind. The problem here is that this is America. This is a constitutional republic based on the rule of law and equal respect for all persons. We can’t pretend that we can bend the rules any which way. We made the rules for ourselves. We have to live by them

People should be judged by the principles they espouse and the principles they betray.

I want no criticism of America at my table. The Americans criticize themselves more than enough.

My power for good, whatever it may, would be gone if I didn’t try to live up to the doctrines I have tried to preach.

This year, or this month, or, more likely, this very day, we have failed to practice ourselves the kind of behavior we expect from other people.

We have to stop thinking of criminals as 'them' and admit to ourselves, 'There but for the grace of God go I.'

There's always going to be a gap between what you believe and what you actually do, regardless of what your background is.

The best critics of America are Americans.

Thinking about the sins of others give us a feeling of moral superiority. But thinking about our own sins is a humbling experience, which is generally much less fun.

Every night at dinner, my father would say something about the greatness of the United States - and tell us to make sure the government is there for the next people who come along and need it.

I'm not saying I'm perfect. But I'm someone who analyses and reflects on what I do, whether it's in keeping with the ethics that I talk about in public. That's how I've been all my life.

May we be as severe with ourselves over our own subtle sins as we are with the vile sins we condemn in others

Apologizing for our past sins may reveal character and for a time lessen anti-Americanism abroad, but if it is done without acknowledging that the sins of America are the sins of mankind, and that our remedies are so often exceptional, then it only earns transitory applause—and a more lasting contempt that we ourselves do not believe in the values we profess.