Bernie Sanders Quotes & Sayings

I have friends and supporters in the Human Rights Fund and Planned Parenthood. Hillary Clinton has been around there for a very, very long time. Some of these groups are, in fact, part of the establishment. — Bernie Sanders

It's very easy to make fun of George W.Bush, but that ain't going to do it. What we have to do is knock on doors and go into communities where there are people who disagree with us on certain issues.And we have to talk to them. They're our friends. They're our allies. They're our co-workers. We can't see them as enemies. — Bernie Sanders

I don't think any sensible person would disagree that the invasion of Iraq led to the massive level of instability that we're seeing right now. I think that was one of the worst foreign policy blunders in the modern history of the United States. — Bernie Sanders

Wall Street is perhaps the most powerful economic and political force in this country. You have companies like Goldman Sachs, who just recently paid a settlement fine with the federal government for $5 billion for defrauding investors. — Bernie Sanders

When a mother has a baby, she should stay home with that baby. — Bernie Sanders

I will do my best to transform our trade policy and take on these corporations who want to invest in low-income countries around the world rather than in the United States of America. — Bernie Sanders

I happen to believe that we should move to a Medicare-for-all single-payer system, similar to what other countries around the world have. — Bernie Sanders

Politics is not a baseball game with winners or losers. What politics is about is whether we protect the needs of millions of people in the country who are hurting. — Bernie Sanders

Republicans win when people are demoralized and you have a small voter turnout, which by the way is why they love voter suppression. I believe that our campaign up to now has shown that we can create an enormous amount of enthusiasm from working people, from young people, who will get involved in the political process and which will drive us to a very large voter turnout. — Bernie Sanders

To my mind, if we do not get a handle on money in politics and the degree to which big money controls the political process in this country, nobody is going to bring about the changes that is needed in this country for the middle class and working families. — Bernie Sanders

In any democratic, civilized - even non-democratic nations, if you are a nation, it means to say that in our case, if there's a hurricane in Louisiana, the people of Vermont are there for them. If there's a tornado in the Midwest, we are there for them. If there's flooding in the East Coast, the people in California are there for us. — Bernie Sanders

We need real tax reform which makes the rich and profitable corporations begin to pay their fair share of taxes. We need a tax system which is fair and progressive. Children should not go hungry in this country while profitable corporations and the wealthy avoid their tax responsibilities by stashing their money in the Cayman Islands. — Bernie Sanders

We need a very progressive and strong agenda to bring people into the political process because I worry very much about the future of the American democracy where so many people are giving up. — Bernie Sanders

In 49 countries around the world, including all of Europe, people have the opportunity of knowing whether or not they are eating food which contains genetically engineered ingredients. In the United States, we don't. — Bernie Sanders

What we have got to do immediately is to say that racism and xenophobia is totally unacceptable and we will stand with the 1 percent of our population who are Muslims, for undocumented people in this country. Absolutely, we will stand. — Bernie Sanders

Whether you are a low-income elderly woman living at the end of a dirt road in Vermont or a wealthy CEO living on Park Avenue, you get your mail six days a week. And you pay for this service at a cost far less than anywhere else in the industrialized world. — Bernie Sanders

We have more people in jail than any other country in Earth, disproportionately Latino and African-American. — Bernie Sanders

If you ask me about my views on the environment, on women's rights, on gay rights, I am liberal. I don't have a problem with that at all. Some of my best friends are liberal. — Bernie Sanders

Rich get richer. Everyone else gets poorer. And all these guys can talk about is war and defunding Planned Parenthood. — Bernie Sanders

And to bring people together we need a simple and straightforward progressive agenda which speaks to the needs of our people, and which provides us with a vision of a very different America. And what is that agenda? Jobs, Jobs, Jobs. It begins with jobs. If we are truly serious about reversing the decline of the middle class we need a major federal jobs program which puts millions of Americans back to work at decent-paying jobs. At a time when our roads, bridges, water systems, rail, and airports are decaying, the most effective way to rapidly create meaningful jobs is to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. That's why I've introduced legislation which would invest $1 trillion over five years to modernize our country's physical infrastructure. This legislation would create and maintain at least thirteen million good-paying jobs, while making our country more productive, efficient, and safe. And I promise you, as president I will lead that legislation into law. Trade. — Bernie Sanders

[Iranians] are a sponsor of terrorism around the world and we have to address that. — Bernie Sanders

Shouting down and intimidating someone from speaking their mind is not exactly a Vermont town meeting value, nor should it be an American town meeting value. — Bernie Sanders

For better or worse, when Sen. Inhofe speaks, the Republican Party follows. And when the Republican Party follows, it is impossible to get real work done in the Congress. — Bernie Sanders

Student debt is crushing the lives of millions of Americans. How does it happen that we can get a home mortgage or purchase a car with interest rates half of that being paid for student loans? We must make higher education affordable for all. We must substantially lower interest rates on student loans. This must be a national priority. — Bernie Sanders

This country is never going to move forward unless we end Republican rule in the House and Senate. — Bernie Sanders

What this [presidency] campaign is about this bringing millions of people jobs in this country. — Bernie Sanders

When a mother goes to the store and purchases food for her child, she has the right to know what she is feeding her family. — Bernie Sanders

It reminds me in some ways of the debate taking place in this country and around the world in the late 1930s - there were people - who said 'don't worry! Hitler's not real! It'll disappear! — Bernie Sanders

Who said that think we should normalize relations with Iran tomorrow? I never said that. I think we should move forward as quickly as we can. — Bernie Sanders

I'm very proud that the state of Vermont banned fracking. I hope communities all over California, and all over America do the same. — Bernie Sanders

[Hillary] Clinton is too much into regime change and a little bit too aggressive without knowing what the unintended consequences might be. Yes, we could get rid of Assad tomorrow, but that would create another political vacuum that would benefit ISIS. — Bernie Sanders

If we are going to reverse the race to the bottom, workers must have the right to engage in collective bargaining. — Bernie Sanders

In the United States today we have the most unequal wealth and income distribution of any major country on earth - worse than at any time since the 1920s. This is an economy that must be changed in fundamental ways. — Bernie Sanders

And the reason that I was one of the first, not one of the last to be in opposition to the TPP is that American workers should not be forced to compete against people in Vietnam today making a minimum wage of $0.65 an hour. Look, what we have got to do is tell corporate America that they cannot continue to shut down. We've lost 60,000 factories since 2001. They're going to start having to, if I'm president, invest in this country - not in China, not in Mexico. — Bernie Sanders

We have over 13 million people who supported my candidacy. And I have no doubt that there are some of those people who will not vote for Hillary Clinton. — Bernie Sanders

I come from a rural state. People drive 50, 100 miles to and from work every single day. That is true all over America. — Bernie Sanders

Here's something that I believe we have to do as we put together an international coalition, and that is we have to understand that the Muslim nations in the region - Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Jordan - all of these nations, they're going to have to get their hands dirty, their boots on the ground. They are going to have to take on ISIS. — Bernie Sanders

We are not going back. We are not returning to the days of back-room abortions, when countless women died or were maimed. The decision about abortion must remain a decision for the woman, her family and a physician to make, not the government. — Bernie Sanders

The American people understand that we need real change in this country, in my view, a political revolution, which says to the people on top, "You know what, you guys can't have it all." — Bernie Sanders

I've run for statewide office plenty of times, and people know me. — Bernie Sanders

What the Des Moines Register said - you know, there were coin - I think there were half a dozen coin flips - a fairly chaotic type situation. At the end of the day, no matter how it's recounted, it will break roughly even. I love and respect the caucus process in Iowa. See, and I don't have to say it, because they voted already. — Bernie Sanders

This is a war for the soul of Islam. And those countries who are opposed to Islam, they are going to have to get deeply involved in a way that is not the case today. We should be supportive of that effort. — Bernie Sanders

We are going to do everything that we can to protect working families in this country. — Bernie Sanders

Let us wage a moral and political war against the billionaires and corporate leaders, on Wall Street and elsewhere, whose policies and greed are destroying the middle class of America. — Bernie Sanders

The combat [with ISIS] on the ground must be done by Muslim troops with our support. We must not get involved in perpetual warfare in the Middle East. — Bernie Sanders

The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, Carly Fiorina, ran for Senator. This is what she said when she was the CEO of Hewlett-Packard in 2004: "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore." I could go on and on and on, but I think we have the point. — Bernie Sanders

I have known Hillary Clinton for 25 years. I remember her, as you do, as a great first lady who broke precedent in terms of the role that a first lady was supposed to play as she helped lead the fight for universal health care. — Bernie Sanders

Every day we are paying more for energy than we should due to poor insulation, inefficient lights, appliances, and heating and cooling equipment - money we could save by investing in energy efficiency. — Bernie Sanders

In many respects, this country is becoming an oligarchy, with a tiny percentage of America owning the media, owning the country. — Bernie Sanders

Why is it that two-thirds of white, rural men voted Republican? Why? That's what we have to address. That's crazy. These people are working longer and longer hours. — Bernie Sanders

The decision is I'm going to do everything I can to fight for the working class of this country, the low-income people against income and wealth inequality, do everything we can about climate change. — Bernie Sanders

In terms of media, we did not get the kind of media attention that somebody like a Donald Trump got, because media is not necessarily interested in the issues facing the middle class, more interested in attacks in personality. So I think there were a lot of reasons. — Bernie Sanders

We should make a major financial commitment to improving our roads and bridges. — Bernie Sanders

Every three weeks before an election the TV ads expressing great concern about our trade policy and the loss of jobs to China and other low-wage countries. And then it's forgotten about the day after the election. — Bernie Sanders

Climate change is real, caused by human activity and already devastating our nation and planet. The United States must lead the world in combating climate change and transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels and toward energy efficiency and sustainability. — Bernie Sanders

But what I intend to do, the day after Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States, is to do everything I can to make sure she goes forward as progressively as she can. — Bernie Sanders

I am sure that there are some single payer advocates who think the only thing worth fighting for is single payer. — Bernie Sanders

The Occupy Wall Street protests are shining a national spotlight on the most powerful, dangerous and secretive economic and political force in America. — Bernie Sanders

Secretary [Hillary ] Clinton is absolutely right, there are people, Koch brothers among others, who have a group called Concerned Veterans of America, funded by the Koch brothers. The Koch brothers, by the way, want to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, every governmental program passed since the 1930s. Yes, there are people out there who want to privatize it. — Bernie Sanders

While commentators on Fox and right-wing radio have the backing of Rupert Murdoch, a major Republican contributor, and other conservative corporations, progressives understand that their position is extremely vulnerable. — Bernie Sanders

Health care in Denmark is universal, free of charge and high quality. Everybody is covered as a right of citizenship. — Bernie Sanders

I worry very, very much about an isolated country. That's what makes me nervous. Russia lives in the world. China lives in the world. North Korea is a very, very strange country because it is so isolated, and I do feel that a nation with nuclear weapons, they have got to be dealt with. Dealt with effectively. — Bernie Sanders

Capitalism does a number of things very well: it helps create an entrepreneurial spirit; it gets people motivated to come up with new ideas, and that's a good thing. — Bernie Sanders

I think the American people in many cases want to transform our energy system. — Bernie Sanders

Today, the United States is No. 1 in corporate profits, No. 1 in CEO salaries, No. 1 in childhood poverty and No. 1 in income and wealth inequality in the industrialized world. — Bernie Sanders

Together, leading the world, the U.S.A. will rid our planet of this barbarous organization called ISIS. — Bernie Sanders

It is time for Congress to save the Postal Service, not dismantle it. — Bernie Sanders

Our goal there, in my view, is to work and lean strongly on China to put as much pressure. China is one of the few major countries in the world that has significant support for North Korea, and I think we got to do everything we can to put pressure on China. I worry very much about an isolated, paranoid country with atomic bombs. — Bernie Sanders

It would have been unthinkable for anyone on the block not to know the names of the players, their batting averages, and the win-loss record of the pitchers. We knew who they were playing on a given day, where they were playing, who was pitching, and how many games out of first place they might be. We also knew as much information about their personal lives as the baseball cards we flipped and traded provided. Most of our contact with the Dodgers came through the radio and TV play-by-play commentary of Red Barber and Vin Scully, who were as familiar to us as the players. Ebbets — Bernie Sanders

Do I consider myself a part of the casino capitalist process? No I don't. I believe in a society where all people do well. — Bernie Sanders

At its worst, Washington is a place where name-calling partisan politics too often trumps policy. — Bernie Sanders

I don't represent large corporations and I don't want their money. — Bernie Sanders

I don't want to get people nervous falling off their chairs, but Social Security is a socialist program. It's a program by which the United States government has said that when you get old you should have a steady source of income. — Bernie Sanders

We have got to make sure that every qualified American in this country who wants to go to college can go to college
regardless of income. — Bernie Sanders

We are going to fight to pass the long over-due Equal Rights Amendment. — Bernie Sanders

I'm interested in - in that his power, if that is the word, is such that he has actually been able to be in a way a one-man wrecking crew in the area of deportment and how one proceeds politically on the stump. Marco Rubio is - is attempting, as you know, to a - to give [Donald] Trump a fight in Trump's own style. I'm not sure how that works, but - but certainly the indices are good. — Bernie Sanders

Corporations are not going to stash their money in the Cayman Islands. We are going to reinvest in America, create jobs, make education available to all. — Bernie Sanders

I am very proud to be the only candidate up here who does not have a Super PAC, who's not raising huge sums of money from Wall Street. — Bernie Sanders

Most of us have not heard about Master Limited Partnerships. These special financing arrangements allow oil and gas investors to avoid paying certain corporate income taxes, but are not available to clean energy businesses. — Bernie Sanders

Social security is the most successful government program in our nation's history. We are not going to cut social security! We are going to expand social security! — Bernie Sanders

In a world of massive wealth and income inequality, Europe must support Greece's efforts to build an economy which creates more jobs and income, not more unemployment and suffering. — Bernie Sanders

This campaign was never just about electing a president of the United States - as enormously important as that was. This campaign was about transforming America. It was about the understanding that real change never takes place from the top on down. It always takes place from the bottom on up. It takes place when ordinary people, by the millions, are prepared to stand up and fight for justice. That — Bernie Sanders

I think it makes people in the Pentagon kind of nervous to know that chemical agents and environmental factors could cause so much damage in terms of what may happen in the future. — Bernie Sanders

One in four corporations doesn't pay any taxes. — Bernie Sanders

NAFTA, supported by the Secretary cost, us 800,000 jobs nationwide, tens of thousands of jobs in the Midwest. Permanent normal trade relations with China cost us millions of jobs. Look, I was on a picket line in early 1990's against NFATA because you didn't need a PhD in economics to understand that American workers should not be forced to compete against people in Mexico making 25 cents an hour. — Bernie Sanders

In terms of Iran and in terms of Saudi Arabia, of course they hate each other. That's no great secret. But John Kerry, who is I think doing a very good job, has tried to at least get these people in the room together because both of them are being threatened by ISIS. — Bernie Sanders

Poverty in America today leads not only to anxiety, unhappiness, discomfort and a lack of material goods. It leads to death. Poverty in America today is a death sentence for tens and tens of thousands of our people. — Bernie Sanders

I want to know in this day and age, whether it is possible for any candidate who is not a billionaire or who is not beholden to the billionaire class, to be able to run successful campaigns. — Bernie Sanders

There's issue of a corrupt campaign finance system, where big money interests and Wall Street are trying to buy elections.Those are the issues that are resonating. — Bernie Sanders

I think, clearly, we got to work closely with China to resolve the serious problems we have, and I worry about Putin and his military adventurism in the Crimea and the Ukraine. — Bernie Sanders

The struggle to create a nation and world of economic and social justice and environmental sanity is not an easy one. The struggle to try and create a more peaceful world will be extremely difficult. But this I know: despair is not an option if we care about our kids and grandchildren. Giving up is not an option if we want to prevent irreparable harm to our planet. — Bernie Sanders

The goal of real healthcare reform must be high-quality, universal coverage in a cost-effective way. — Bernie Sanders

Former Senator Al D'Amato in 1991 offered an amendment to cap credit card interest rates at 14 percent. — Bernie Sanders

The rise to power of a right-wing lunatic in a free election in Germany. — Bernie Sanders

We are the only major country on earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all people as a right and yet we end up spending much more than they do, so I do believe that we have to move toward a Medicare for all, single-payer system. — Bernie Sanders

I have a lot of respect for President Obama. I consider him a friend. I disagree with him on issues like the extension of tax breaks that Bush initiated. But I think history will judge a President Obama a lot better than many other contemporaries, given the fact that he came into office at a time when this country was in terrible, terrible shape. — Bernie Sanders

Today, over half of American workers have less than $10,000 in savings and have no idea how they will be able to retire with any shred of dignity. — Bernie Sanders

Millions are unemployed and our roads are falling apart. If we can spend $6 trillion sending people to war, we can spend $1 trillion to put Americans to work fixing our nation's crumbling infrastructure. Let's rebuild America and create jobs. — Bernie Sanders

The United States invests just 2.4 percent of GDP in infrastructure; whereas, Europe invests twice that amount. — Bernie Sanders

How about something more interesting? How about you come forward and say, [Donald] Trump supporters, I absolutely know what you think about the Republican Party and the Republican establishment and how disappointed you are. Guess what, I'm going to tell you what you're right about. What they've disappointed about. The Republican Party is always eager to tell you the flaws of the Democratic Party. Take Trump supporters seriously by conceding what is true about their critique of the GOP. — Bernie Sanders