Chris Matthews Quotes & Sayings

People - Hollywood doesn't talk about how bad cigarette smells when it smells like they wake up in bed with somebody who has been smoking the night before. — Chris Matthews

Once it was suggested that Saddam Hussein might give his weaponry to terrorists, or might use weapons himself in the region, then it became hard for the Democrats to say, 'Well, that can't happen.' — Chris Matthews

The Indians are still winning the battle against the white men, but sooner or later, the white guy will win. — Chris Matthews

The Russian people were just like us. They were victims of their own government. Ronald Reagan — Chris Matthews

I look back to the Great Depression, and what Roosevelt was able to do in very difficult times, to get Social Security through back in the time when it was seen as - well, it wasn't what it is today. It was sort of a last-ditch, if you really need it, you got it, but, today, it's much more a part of your retirement program. — Chris Matthews

Isn't it odd that the guy was politically correct in one particularly weird way. Bill Clinton never lit a cigar. — Chris Matthews

How do we know when someone like Hasan is going to make his move and do we know he's an Islamist until he's made his move? He makes a phone call or whatever, according to Reuters right now. Apparently he tried to contact al-Qaida. Is that the point at which you say, "This guy is dangerous?" That's not a crime to call up al-Qaida, is it? Is it? I mean, where do you stop the guy? — Chris Matthews

We've got to recognize that when we march into Iraq, we're setting up the card tables in front of every university in the Arab world, the Islamic world, to recruit for al-Qaida. — Chris Matthews

The overall campaign launch is designed to break through the clutter and reach out to consumers. At the end of the day, consumers are the ones who benefit from the convenience and value never before seen in a free checking account. — Chris Matthews

The Democrats just don't have a foreign policy that they're willing to defend, that they're willing to use to take down the president's. We're dealing with the power of suggestion here. — Chris Matthews

We supported the contras. We're not against all opposition to government, or all paramilitary operations. — Chris Matthews

It's a fact of life that positive reasons don't always get people to vote. You need some negative reasons. — Chris Matthews

Over the last 2,000 years, 10,000 saints have been named, among them, 78 popes. At the time of his death, Pope John Paul II had the distinction of naming 482 saints, more than all of his predecessors combined. — Chris Matthews

on-air appearance you could see that the secretary of state — Chris Matthews

The author, at the time a Carter speechwriter in the 1980 campaign, showed visible distress at his boss's performance and was warned by a friend in the traveling press, lest he become the story. — Chris Matthews

It doesn't serve an American interest. It really doesn't really serve Israeli interests - it serves the interests of the political party that's getting the votes of the settlers on the West Bank. — Chris Matthews

I tell my staff, we're riding a tour bus around, and we're going to stop and look at some weird stuff - but we're taking our viewers around safely. They're just looking out the window at it. I'm trying to create a sense of comfort for my center audience. — Chris Matthews

If you want to play a game, go to where it's played and find a way to get in. Things happen when you get in the game. — Chris Matthews

I never wrote off [Donald] Trump. — Chris Matthews

I think a lot it was the theology, that the road to Jerusalem runs through Baghdad, that somehow if we broke apart the rejectionist states, like Iraq, then the whole Middle East would reconfigure itself into a more favorable environment for democracy and Israel and us. — Chris Matthews

And on the war, I think my numbers would be a lot higher if I were out there beating the drum for this war. In fact, I don't think it, I know it. But I can't be for the war. — Chris Matthews

Staffers tend to mimic their bosses, to take their key from them. — Chris Matthews

Any jackass can talk about bombing Iran. — Chris Matthews

I'm not just gonna go after the black Jesse Jackson they all want to make fun of, but I know the wrong people are gonna laugh at that. I don't want to play to that crowd. I don't. — Chris Matthews

His [John Paul II] humanity, combined with his extraordinary spiritual authority, was unlike anything I've ever met. — Chris Matthews

Historically, the coupling of president and Speaker has been a tricky one that encourages a choreography both quick-footed and wary — Chris Matthews

He's a beautiful man, but I'm sorry he doesn't agree with my political philosophy

Tip O'Neill on Ronald Reagan — Chris Matthews

I know, when I look into the eyes of my own children, the look of wonder when I speak of life back in the '60s. That's why the Rolling Stones are such a hit even in their 60s, why Dennis Hopper is so compelling, even when he's making pitches for something unhip as long-term financial planning. — Chris Matthews

I had the good fortune of living in Rome for seven years, from 1994 to 2001. So, I kind of saw firsthand the impact that Pope John Paul II had on people. — Chris Matthews

In politics there is a large difference between loosing and being defeated. — Chris Matthews

For Reagan,for his contemporaries, and many in the generations after them, the word Munich was understood as code for any nation's stepping back from necessary toughness — Chris Matthews

He was experienced enough to spot the downside of doing the right thing. — Chris Matthews

John Paul II spoke to the commoner and to the king, to the tyrant and to the democrat in that same language of freedom. — Chris Matthews

The difference between me and them is that I'll look at Jesse Jackson and I'll see four Jesse Jacksons, and they'll just see one, the clown ambulance chaser. — Chris Matthews

Every party and every movement tends to need a hero. — Chris Matthews

[Barack] Obama believes you can hold enemy combatants, unlawful enemy combatants at Gitmo without a criminal trial because this is law of war detention. — Chris Matthews

It was like an aphrodisiac. Actors would say let's have another cigarette on that great scenes, and they'd blow smoke in each other's face. — Chris Matthews

The pope has been called many things, historic figure, spiritual leader, moral force. But a growing chorus of voices has begun to refer to him as John Paul II the Great, in other words, as a saint. — Chris Matthews

O'Neill was perceptive enough to understand the country had a new leader that it wanted to believe in. After the tragedy of Dallas, after the quicksand of Vietnam, the scandal of Watergate, and the "malaise" of Jimmy Carter, it needed one. — Chris Matthews

We in America count on the profit motive to get people to do the right thing. That's our basic American notion when it comes to business. — Chris Matthews

The President [Barack Obama] said if we get out of this business of trade expansion, we turn it over to the Chinese. This brings us into partnership with 11 other Pacific Rim countries. — Chris Matthews

You can't be loved for long if you're not feared. — Chris Matthews

Even the bureaucracy does not shatter the stillness. — Chris Matthews

The more failure you can accept, the greater your chance of success. — Chris Matthews

Shared history was the coin of the realm. — Chris Matthews

I mean, if somebody said to me, junior year of college, you can go anywhere, your old man's paying for it, I'd have been gone in a flash. But I had to work. Every summer my mother would say, 'Get that job and hold on to it until August 30.' — Chris Matthews

When I hear Rand Paul, who is much younger, saying wars are verkakte, I agree with him. — Chris Matthews

Just look at who won the third debate between Bush and Gore. I knew Bush won, because people liked him more. People just didn't like Gore. But all the journalists thought Gore won big, he cleaned the guy's clock. — Chris Matthews

Hillary Clinton does very well in Pennsylvania generally. I think she connects with the working white people and all kinds of people that normally would have a problem with the modern Democratic Party. — Chris Matthews

Pope John Paul II was fascinated by the United States. And I think he was initially surprised at the vigor of the Catholic Church in the United States. Maybe some of the press that we had gotten he found wasn't true. No, I think he suspected the church in the United States. Did he challenge us to some things? Sure, he did. But, no, I always - I think there was a good alliance. There was a good gel there. — Chris Matthews

I think, like Ronald Reagan, in another way, in a secular way, John Paul II was a great communicator, but he was also a man of deep conviction. — Chris Matthews

Anecdotes came with his DNA. — Chris Matthews

While we may not mind being used, we resent deeply being made to feel discarded. — Chris Matthews

America's the one country in the world where anybody who comes here does better than where they came from. — Chris Matthews

Rush Limbaugh is beginning to look more and more like Mr. Big, and at some point somebody's going to jam a CO2 pellet into his head and he's going to explode like a giant blimp. That day may come. Not yet, but we'll be there to watch. — Chris Matthews

The author attributes part of the Carter-Reagan divide to their respective attitudes toward the city from which they governed. Carter was deeply suspicious of its coziness. Reagan intended to enjoy his temporary home even while delivering it from its reigning ideology. — Chris Matthews

Then the administration tied it in to the regional dispute between Israel and its enemies, as if that's about international terrorism. No, it's not. — Chris Matthews

I love what Joe Eszterhas written about Bill Clinton. It's hilarious, Clinton as a rock star, which is the way we should remember him. — Chris Matthews

I forgot he [Barack Obama] was black tonight for an hour. — Chris Matthews

I used to love hand raising. — Chris Matthews

The holy father John Paul II made a profound impact wherever he went. And, of course, his trip to Boston was one of the earliest ones. But I must say every time that I met the holy father and mentioned Boston, he would immediately say, rain. So, it made quite an impact on him, too. — Chris Matthews

B.B. King will be remembered for his impressive skills on the guitar, that King defined the blue genre. — Chris Matthews

Isn't Hollywood - and I love movies - a lot of it about a big lie? — Chris Matthews

Pope John Paul II himself was kind of a rather independent, creative man. I remember being told by somebody who worked very close with him in preparation for his first visit to the United States in 1979, he studied our normative documents, Declaration of Independence, the Federalist Papers, the Constitution. And he was amazed. He called his priests first
thing in the morning and he said, he said, I thought America was a pagan country. — Chris Matthews

My priority is to see that some people don't suffer for the good of others. — Chris Matthews

You don't know whether he's thought through how this is going to affect the Middle East. — Chris Matthews

The Catholic Church [with Pope John Paul II] has lost its shepherd. The world has lost a champion of human freedom. — Chris Matthews

Bill Clinton was for NAFTA. I heard him over in Tokyo he came out all said it was a great bill. Secretary Clinton was for it. She called it the gold standard when she was secretary of state. — Chris Matthews

My audience is much more center right, or centrist. — Chris Matthews

I'm reading Joe Eszterhas biography; it's fabulous. Every time he made a movie, he fought with the director or the producer over the ending. — Chris Matthews

I don't believe he had a responsibility to even answer that question - you have no responsibility to answer personal questions that people have no right to ask you. — Chris Matthews

Let's not forget, Sarah Palin may not have a golden touch, but, she gave Christine O'Donnell candidate a big touch that got her over the top. — Chris Matthews

The whole reason we organize grassroots is, we think any politician that gets elected needs to be held accountable 365 days a year. — Chris Matthews

That is the voice of God because its the voice of truth and experience. — Chris Matthews

They were unable to stand up and say: 'Here's our policy. It's Unite the world against terrorism.' — Chris Matthews

I think also people in states like Pennsylvania know that a lot of money and effort and time needs to be spent on knitting America back together, on the bridges and the roads and the infrastructure and the education. — Chris Matthews

To become a saint in the Catholic Church, the normal procedure is, beatification, requiring one miracle in your name, then canonization, roughly in five years or longer, to become a saint, a second miracle. — Chris Matthews

I still think a reasonable question is, would we be better off with [Muamar] Gadhafi and Bashar al-Assad still in there and Mubarak still there and Saddam [Hussein] there than the crap we have got looking at us now? — Chris Matthews

It does look like it's almost like South Africa to this extent: You have a white - what's the word - feeble minority. It's losing its majority status. And it says, the Republican Party, 'We can only get so many white votes. So, we got to reduce the votes of others.' It does look that way. Only the - maybe you're non-partisan, but only Republicans have pushed this in these 31 states. No Democratic legislature. You gotta look at the pattern here. You talk about profiling. I'm sorry, Republicans do this stuff. — Chris Matthews

And then there's Israel - a lot of people support Israel, and it's important to Israel to take out Iraq. So it's all mixed together. It's a combination of motives. — Chris Matthews

Even if you're not a Catholic, even if you're not a Christian, in fact even if you have no religious faith at all, what people could see in Pope John Paul was a man of true and profound spiritual faith. — Chris Matthews

Reagan was all about America, and you talked about it. Obama is, 'We are above that now. We're not just parochial, we're not just chauvinistic, we're not just provincial. We stand for something.' I mean, in a way, Obama's standing above the country, above - above the world. He's sort of God. He's going to bring all different sides together. — Chris Matthews

He'd made a name for himself out there in the world beyond not just in spite of the distinctly unfashionable persona he presented, but, perhaps, BECAUSE of it. — Chris Matthews

Pope John Paul II spoke with a lot of clarity and consistency. But he always spoke with immense compassion. He's the one who said the best way to love somebody is to tell them the truth. So, he did that well. — Chris Matthews

Nothing is as important as the biggest day in your life. — Chris Matthews

You know, there were 29 Democratic votes for censure in the Senate. And if the Republicans had any sense, they would have censured him before the '98 midterm election, and they would have won the election. — Chris Matthews

Canonization in modern times is a very, almost scientific process. — Chris Matthews

I care about Roger Sterling, one of the most subtle and amazing characters in dramatic history [Mad men]. This guys who knows precisely who he is, yet leaves us time after time hoping desperately for him to finally grab control of his life and some responsibility for those around him. — Chris Matthews

We've always had a dual role in the region - friend of Israel, and honest broker. We've given up the honest broker role completely. — Chris Matthews

[Hillary] Clinton was able to assemble a winning Democratic coalition out here, beating Sanders among African-Americans, women, among women, and voters from union households, so, unions, women, African-Americans. — Chris Matthews

My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don't have that too often. — Chris Matthews

I wonder ... if the Republican Party really wants to be branded right now as the party of tax cuts and torture? I mean that's what they're selling. — Chris Matthews

It's no good to shoot a guy anymore. It's not enough.Nobody is throwing anybody off of buildings after seeing these movies, but they are smoking after seeing some good-looking celebrity smoke. — Chris Matthews

The big lie is that the people who make a lot of money were the only ones that worked hard. — Chris Matthews

Pope John Paul II is the great. Only two other popes had that title. Does that suggest there is going to be a move for canonization? — Chris Matthews

People do have a - people, unlike politicians, are allowed to change their minds. People are allowed to look back and say, you know what, all things considered, I don't think that was the smart move. — Chris Matthews

I think we all [americans] think we're a special country. But the question is, what - what call does that give us? — Chris Matthews

Public opinion aside, it will be up to the future pope to continue John Paul II's journey to sainthood. Many of the late pope's followers believe he is already there. — Chris Matthews

Five years from now, 10 years from now, there's going to be a huge Islamic population in the world, they're going to be nationalistic, they're going to be religious, and they're going to be militant. — Chris Matthews

This looking down our noses at tea party people has got to stop, — Chris Matthews