Charles E. Schumer Quotes

I was ranked the second most conservative member in the House.

Of course I'm not a racist, but I'm certainly right wing, there's no question about that.

I consider myself a right-winger and Gray was certainly one.

Establish democracy ... based on human rights as superior to property rights.

It is true he has never originated anything that would savor of progressiveness, but he has been close enough to this administration to know what it stands for.

The American people will always be progressive as well as conservative.

People have rights and government must be kept from trampling on them.

People have increasingly come to regard the government as a source of rights rather than as a defender of pre-existing individual rights.

Gay rights are perfectly compatible with fundamental Republican principles of limited government, individual rights and equal protection of the laws.

If you're a conservative, you think I'm Satan.

Obviously, I'm no fan of the radical left.

I don't know that I'm as conservative as portrayed.

Tea Party sympathizers are more conservative on abortion policy than typical Republicans.

I like to say now that the reason I'm conservative is because I used to be a liberal, and I learned a lot.

If we buy into the notion that somehow property rights are less important, or are in conflict with, human or civil rights, we give the socialists a freer hand to attack our property.

American Catholics are committed to building a society which is truly tolerant and inclusive, to safeguarding the rights of individuals and communities, and to rejecting every form of unjust discrimination. With countless other people of good will, they are likewise concerned that efforts to build a just and wisely ordered society respect their deepest concerns and their right to religious liberty.

By definition, the moment one crosses from center to left, one accepts more government control of people's lives. Therefore, the further left society moves, the more there is government control over its citizens' lives. It is astonishing that this obvious fact is not universally acknowledged and that the Left has somehow successfully portrayed itself as preoccupied with personal liberty.

One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers, there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and no trade union rights without either. That is our belief; that is our creed.

In any nation in which people's rights have been subordinated to the rights of the few, in any totalitarian nation, the first institution to be dismantled is the jury. I was, I am, afraid.

I don't think that Donald Trump is a conservative. In fact, you go on Fox News, and half the people say he is and half say he isn't.

I wonder if it's conservative or liberal [ inalienable rights idea], because when we think of liberal thought, when we think about the relation to liberty, we're talking about traditional conservatism - as opposed to today's conservatism, which no longer represents those views.

Liberalism has become a moral vaccine that immunizes people against stigmatization.

I will never surrender the rights of the individual - the complete rights of the individual - to any "ism" whatever.

There's a lot of people that don't understand liberalism, there are a lot of people that I think, by definition, still need to be informed and educated that it isn't the soft, loving, compassionate stuff that it's portrayed to be. Trump speaks for himself. Who Trump is and what he's doing is not a mystery to anybody. It's the exact opposite of a mystery. It's in your face.

I don’t think I’m all that conservative.