Political Courage Quotes

McKinley has no more backbone than a chocolate eclair.

Corporations and special interests have their voice in Congress, and they have too many members scared of their power. What Congress needs is a progressive voice who is unafraid to take on these powerful interests - who is willing to fight for all Americans, not just the wealthiest 1 percent.

Political leaders will never take risks unless the people push them to take risks.

Harry Truman's decision to fire Douglas MacArthur at the height of the Korean War in April 1951 shocked the American political system and astonished the world. Much of the world didn't realize the president had the power to fire a five-star general; much of America didn't realize Truman had the nerve.

Voters have demonstrated time and again that candidates who buck the teachers' union are rewarded.

Obama wants to be thought of as the president who freed us from foreign oil. But if he doesn't show some political courage, he may well be remembered as the president who cooked the planet.

When I became leader, I made very clear I was not going to choose the easy life. I have always taken risks. I don't like comfort-zone politics.

A single courageous state can if its citizen’s choose, serve as a laboratory…. One of the happy incidents of the federal system … novel social and economic experiments can be tried without risk to the rest of the country.

Action must begin in the developing world itself. These countries do not lack financial resources. What they lack is political courage. We need to ask the leaders of the Third World, and ask them bluntly, why they insist on spending $130 billion each year on the military when even a quarter of this expenditure can finance their entire essential social agenda. And we must ask them why they insist on having six soldiers for every one doctor when their people are dying of ordinary diseases, from internal disintegration, not from external aggression, from many threats to human security, not any threats to territorial security.

In public life, a man whose political principles have any decided character and who has energy enough to give them effect must always expect to encounter political hostility from those of adverse principles.

I do have to give it up for Sarah Palin on one account. She is brave.

There has been no more principled opposition to racism than Jeremy Corbyn: he was getting arrested for protesting against Apartheid when the rest of them were doing deals and calling Nelson Mandela a terrorist.

I have nothing but contempt for the kind of governor who is afraid, for whatever reason, to follow the course that he knows is best for the State; and as for the man who sets private friendship above the public welfare - I have no use for him, either.

Dumping Rockefeller from the ticket was the most cowardly thing I have ever done.

If I were afraid of polls, I never would've been elected in two landslide elections, leading a highest percentage in our state's last election for governor. If I were afraid of polls, we wouldn't have privatized our charity hospital system, we wouldn't cut our state budget 26%, wouldn't have cut over 30,000 state government bureaucrats, wouldn't have done statewide school choice. Here's the real record.

Milosevic did not die in The Hague - he was killed in The Hague. But, he had managed to defend the national and state interests of Serbia and the Serb people, and everybody should be grateful to him for that.

When the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt thrust him suddenly into the Presidency in April of 1945 at one of the most critical moments of our history, he met that moment with courage and vision. His farsighted leadership in the postwar era has helped ever since to preserve peace and freedom in the world.

We don't duck democratic choices out of fear of fascists.

I push reforms. I tell the truth to people, even when it's tough for the country.

When I came into office, I could have kicked the can down the road for a little while, or I could do the right thing.

Towards the end of the Banquet came the news, the great world stirring news, that Neville [Chamberlain], on his own initiative, seeing war coming closer and closer, had telegraphed to Hitler that he wanted to see him, and asked him to name an immediate rendezvous…. Of course a way out will not be found. Neville by his imagination and practical good sense, has saved the world.

If I was afraid of being killed, I would never speak out against the government.

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.

I am proud to be the first Republican to support marriage equality; it is something I have had in my heart for a long time… Let’s open the floodgates and take this across America.

I will not change my beliefs to win votes. I will offer a choice, not an echo.