William Howard Taft Quotes

We Republicans came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.

I didn't want my next U.S. senator to be someone who was going to go up there and do the same stuff people have been doing. But I guess our argument is it's okay to be angry and upset at Washington.

I've got three little kids at home, and I'm trying to save this country from itself. I'm not here to play political power games, and I've had enough of people playing political power games, and this has just gone on too long.

I worked for Hillary [Clinton] when I was young - when she was running for the Senate. I was fundraising and things, I see all of these people as political in a way that isn't humanistic. I'm just watching and hoping that someone is going to distinguish himself or herself as comprehending what we need.

So how's that hopey changey stuff working out for ya?

It's a sad thing about politics that most people get power too late, in that they differ from ladies of easy virtue who get their pleasures too early.

If we're able to stop Obama on [health care reform], it will be his Waterloo. It will break him and we will show that we can, along with the American people, begin to push those freedom solutions that work in every area of our society.

The challenge has been, we make policy in the world of politics.

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

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.

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?'

In politics there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those like John McCain who use their careers to promote change.

As a businessperson, I don't have the power to change the government. That is in the hands of the political leaders. However, as a taxpayer, we have the right to be critical of the government and demand change.

I'm not ready to give you a clear answer on whether electoral politics holds any particular hope for progressives. It would mean that nothing I did ever mattered.

The results of political changes are hardly ever those which their friends hope or their foes fear.

A reform is a correction of abuses; a revolution is a transfer of power.

I think the fact is that anybody who goes into politics feels like 'I can make a difference'. But it's not one person, you need so many others.

I changed that system in Florida when I was the Speaker of the House - I was the Minority Leader; I saw for 16 years the way a power system works.

…the Senate, a small body of egos…

Culture does matter, but politics can change culture.

Eventually, money wins in politics.

If you can’t move the public, you can’t move the Congress.

Politics is about power, and it is about group power.

Politics is an impressionistic art form.

The senator who is driving you crazy today may be with you tomorrow.