Bill Clinton > Quotes

“We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.”
― Bill Clinton

“from Bill Clinton speech-
People are more impressed by the power of our example rather than the example of our power...”
― Bill Clinton

“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
― Bill Clinton

“When our memories outweigh our dreams, it is then that we become old.”
― Bill Clinton

“I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can’t be judged by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgements can make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only response to pain.

Perhaps most important, I learned that everyone has a story – of dreams and nightmares, hope and heartache, love and loss, courage and fear, sacrifice and selfishness. All my life I’ve been interested in other people’s stories. I wanted to know them, understand them, feel them. When I grew up into politics, I always felt the main point of my work was to people a chance to have better stories. - Page 15, Paragraph 5, ‘My Life’ by Bill Clinton. –Hard cover version-”
― Bill Clinton, My Life

“If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person. It's how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.”
― Bill Clinton

“The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it. Between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past. Between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists.”
― Bill Clinton

“Being President is like being the groundskeeper in a cemetery: there are a lot of people under you, but none of them are listening.”
― Bill Clinton

“If you want to live like a Republican, vote like a Democrat.”
― Bill Clinton, My Life

“All America loses when any person is denied or forced out of a job because of sexual orientation. Being gay, the last time I thought about it, seemed to have nothing to do with the ability to read a balance book, fix a broken bone, or change a spark plug.”
― Bill Clinton

“People around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”
― Bill Clinton

“We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.”
― Bill Clinton

“A man is more than the sum of all the things he can do.”
― Bill Clinton, My Life

“Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all.”
― Bill Clinton

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman”
― Bill Clinton

“Our democracy cannot survive its current downward drift into tribalism, extremism, and seething resentment. Today it’s “us versus them” in America. Politics is little more than blood sport. As a result, our willingness to believe the worst about everyone outside our own bubble is growing, and our ability to solve problems and seize opportunities is shrinking. We have to do better. We have honest differences. We need vigorous debates. Healthy skepticism is good. It saves us from being too naive or too cynical. But it is impossible to preserve democracy when the well of trust runs completely dry.”
― Bill Clinton, The President Is Missing

“In other words, our constitution was designed by people who were idealistic but not ideological. There's a big difference. You can have a philosophy that tends to be liberal or conservative but still be open to evidence, experience, and argument. That enables people with honest differences to find practical, principled compromise. On the other hand, fervent insistence on an ideology makes evidence, experience, and arguments irrelevant: If you possess the absolute truth, those who disagree are by definition wrong, and evidence of success or failure is irrelevant. There is nothing to learn from the experience of other countries. Respectful arguments are a waste of time. Compromise is weakness. And if your policies fail, you don't abandon them; instead, you double down, asserting that they would have worked if only they had been carried to their logical extreme.”
― Bill Clinton, Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy

“You can put wings on a pig, but that doesn't make it an eagle.”
― Bill Clinton

“..each bloodletting hastens the next, and as the value of human life is degraded and violence becomes tolerated, the unimaginable becomes more conceivable.”
― Bill Clinton

“The media knows what sells—conflict and division. It’s also quick and easy. All too often anger works better than answers; resentment better than reason; emotion trumps evidence. A sanctimonious, sneering one-liner, no matter how bogus, is seen as straight talk, while a calm, well-argued response is seen as canned and phony.”
― Bill Clinton, The President Is Missing

“We live in a completely interdependent world, which simply means we can not escape each other. How we respond to AIDS depends, in part, on whether we understand this interdependence. It is not someone else's problem. This is everybody's problem.”
― Bill Clinton

“If one candidate is appealing to your fears, and the other one's appealing to your hopes, you’d better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope!”
― Bill Clinton

“They should be impressed by the power of our example, not the example of our power.”
― Bill Clinton

“We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more."
- Bill Clinton”
― Bill Clinton

“If you live long enough, you'll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you'll be a better person.”
― Bill Clinton

“When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn't like it. I didn't inhale.”
― Bill Clinton

“Gerald Ford once said that an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives says it is.”
― Bill Clinton, The President Is Missing

“When our memories outweigh our dreams, we have grown old.”
― Bill Clinton

“That’s the permanent mission our Founding Fathers left us—moving toward the “more perfect union.”
― Bill Clinton, The President Is Missing

“Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
― Bill Clinton