Cory Booker Quotes & Sayings

When American citizens pull together, there is little we can't accomplish. — Cory Booker

We have had in our nation a well-celebrated Declaration of Independence. But our success as a country will depend upon a new 'Declaration of Inter-dependence.' A belief in how much we need each other, how much we share one common destiny. — Cory Booker

In Newark, we see a problem and want to seize it, but we run up against the wall of state government, the wall of federal government that does not have the flexibility or doesn't see problems, even. At the federal level, it's often a zero-sum game: If you win, I lose. At the local level, it's just not local that. It's win-win-win. — Cory Booker

These are the themes in life which are consistent in Judaism, Islam, Hinduism - of being grounded in who you are and being engaged in an unjust world. — Cory Booker

Before you speak to me about your religion, first show it to me in how you treat other people. Before you tell me how much you love your God, show me in how much you love all His children. — Cory Booker

Cities can be places that represent the best of our ideals: where Americans of all different backgrounds can come together and, through their interactions, and even through their unity, spawn true American greatness. — Cory Booker

I'd gladly take a grenade, if it meant saving Newark. — Cory Booker

We have a presidential nominee in Hillary Clinton who knows that, in a time of stunningly wide disparities of wealth in our nation, America's greatness must not be measured by how many millionaires and billionaires we have, but by how few people we have living in poverty. — Cory Booker

I love seeing on Twitter when someone says I'm gay, and I say, 'So what does it matter if I am? So be it. I hope you are not voting for me because you are making the presumption that I'm straight.' — Cory Booker

We're a nation of hope, of high ideals. — Cory Booker

There was a small point in my life in law school, right before I moved to Newark, when I didn't know what I wanted to do, and I felt so lost. — Cory Booker

I have got the job of my dreams. — Cory Booker

I want to try to live my own values as consciously and purposefully as I can. — Cory Booker

I have seen things in my life that have broken me in spirit. — Cory Booker

Let your critics make you humble, and your enemies make you wise. Learn from every stumble but let nothing keep you down, for you were born to rise! — Cory Booker

If we invest in ourselves, the collective good, we all thrive. — Cory Booker

I was born after the Civil Rights Movement. I never saw Martin Luther King alive. — Cory Booker

I have never articulated a specific number, but I think a nation as great as we are, that professes to favor freedom and liberty, that we would find a way to evidence that in our criminal justice system by achieving what we know we can achieve: a reduction in crime, a reduction in taxpayer expense, and a reduction in the prison population. — Cory Booker

I spent eight years living without heat and hot water. — Cory Booker

Tolerance is becoming accustomed to injustice; love is becoming disturbed and activated by another's adverse condition. Tolerance crosses the street; love confronts. Tolerance builds fences; love opens doors. Tolerance breeds indifference; love demands engagement. Tolerance couldn't care less; love always cares more. - — Cory Booker

If we're concerned about climate change as a country, we should have policies that make sure our great-grandchildren have a planet that's healthy and strong. — Cory Booker

The change we seek for our nation is not the choice of an individual but must be the calling of a country. — Cory Booker

Our platform emphasizes that a vibrant, free and fair market is essential to economic growth. — Cory Booker

Courage has you say in a defiant spirit you can take everything from me, you could cut me deep, you could render me in shame but you will never ever stop me from loving those who mock me, from loving those that hate me, from loving those who don't forgive me, from loving the cynics, from loving the darkness so much that I myself through my small acts of consistent unyielding love may bring on the light. — Cory Booker

I think Newark has been in the crosshairs in every generation of the fight to achieve America. And I think Newark is a city that's at that crossroads still. — Cory Booker

If we are going to do big things in our country, we're going to have to think about better ways working across our differences. — Cory Booker

People who get comfortable in their spirit miss what they were created for. They were created to magnify the glory of the world. — Cory Booker

We should be ashamed of ourselves. We inherited the best infrastructure on the globe from our grandparents ... and we've taken that inheritance and squandered it. — Cory Booker

My father passed away a few days before my election. This man, an African American born to a poor single mother in 1936 in the South, would worry in the last years of his life that he had better life chances when he was growing up than a young man born in the same circumstances would have today. — Cory Booker

For an economy built to last we must invest in what will fuel us for generations to come. This is our history - from the Transcontinental Railroad to the Hoover Dam, to the dredging of our ports and building of our most historic bridges - our American ancestors prioritized growth and investment in our nation's infrastructure. — Cory Booker

The fact that Newark is having poetry festivals and peace conferences - all of these things are building an undeniable thesis that our city is making incredible strides forward. — Cory Booker

I debated between law school and divinity. — Cory Booker

My grandmother from Iowa, she is dancing in Heaven at the prospect that the next president of the United States is going to be Hillary Rodham Clinton. — Cory Booker

After Yale Law School, I was proud to try to live up to my parents' example and began my career working for The Urban Justice Center in the streets of Newark, organizing residents to fight for better housing conditions. — Cory Booker

First class in life has nothing to do with the clothes you wear, the car you drive or the house you live in. First class is and always will be about the content of your character, the quality of your ideas and the kindness in your heart. — Cory Booker

Greatness is helping others realize they are great, beautiful and capable. Genius is seeing the wonder and possibility in those others ignore. — Cory Booker

America has seen enough of a handful of people growing rich at the cost of our nation descending into economic crisis. — Cory Booker

As a government leader, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and watch all these other sectors innovate. I'm going to do everything I can as a leader to be in that innovation, to be a provocateur for that innovation. — Cory Booker

We also must pull from our highest ideals of justice and protect against those ills that destabilized our economy - like predatory lending, over-leveraged financial institutions and the unchecked avarice of the past that trumped fairness and common sense. Our platform calls for significant cuts in federal spending. — Cory Booker

The disgust and latent hostility I felt toward gays were subcategories of hatred, plain and simple. — Cory Booker

The mayoral mentality is incredibly valuable. I don't want to lose that. — Cory Booker

I know Donald Trump. I've met him; I know his family. I have love and friendship and affection for his family members. But I'm going to work very hard to ensure that he is not our president. — Cory Booker

The history in our country speaks to our highest values of people who did not accept things as they are and go along with them. They resisted, they refused to accept the world as it is, they demanded it to be a better reflection of their highest dreams and highest aspirations. — Cory Booker

'Hamilton' is one of the best things I've ever seen on a stage, and for a guy who loves American history, hip-hop and theater, it was pure bliss. — Cory Booker

Cities can become the engines that fuel our nation's growth and prosperity, and they can be wide gateways for families to achieve their own American dream of prosperity. — Cory Booker

I don't know what God has planned for me or you or anyone, but I do know that in darkness, you discover an indistinguishable light. — Cory Booker

You don't have to be one of those people that accepts things as they are. Every day, take responsibility for changing them right where you are. — Cory Booker

Listen, don't get my Jersey pride going. We are the most densely-populated state in America 'cause some many people who know the secret want to live there. — Cory Booker

Small acts of decency ripple in ways we could never imagine. — Cory Booker

Democracy is not a spectator sport. It is a difficult, hard, full-contact, participatory endeavor. — Cory Booker

In life, it is never the big battle, the big moment, the big speech, the big election. That does not change things. What changes things is every day, getting up and rendering small acts of service and love beyond that what's expected of you or required of you. — Cory Booker

When your country is in a costly war, with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare - it's patriotism. — Cory Booker

I am a geek nerd who happened to have a temporary period of jockiness. — Cory Booker

Government has got to open up and engage citizenry as partners. — Cory Booker

Having people that really reflect the spectrum of American experiences is important to have on the Supreme Court. — Cory Booker

I hope and understand that people are getting a better recognition that food stamps is a program that really helps America, helps families in need. It's not a government handout. If anything, it's a safety net that helps people through difficult times and bridges them towards stability. — Cory Booker

Are there any monuments built to demagogues? I just don't think so. — Cory Booker

In college, I was a fiercely committed Democrat - a meeting with Jack Kemp, then Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, challenged my blind partisanship. — Cory Booker

When we embraced social media, we took more control of the Newark narrative. We increased responsiveness toward residents. We drew more of our constituents in to participate in government and improve our cities. — Cory Booker

I believe there's tremendous value in having a Supreme Court with a diverse set of experiences - especially when we're dealing with issues that range from our intimate relationships to how we finance campaigns. — Cory Booker

I believe that living life with a definiteness of purpose, with having a central focus, is essential to success. — Cory Booker

I live in Brick Towers, a public housing project in Newark's Central Ward. I moved in when the projects were privately owned by a man who the residents and I believed was a grade A slumlord. — Cory Booker

The process of writing a book has given me a whole new reverence for writers. Mechanically, it is a brutal process; emotionally, it's incredibly healing. — Cory Booker

Innovators reimagine our world in so many areas. We need them to help reimagine what government can and should be. — Cory Booker

As a guy that had been told to drop out many times as I was coming up, I don't think you should tell any candidate about what they should do and what decisions they should make. — Cory Booker

Let us declare that we are a nation of interdependence, and that in America love always trumps hate. Let us declare, so that generations yet unborn can hear us. We are the United States of America; our best days are ahead of us. And together, with Hillary Clinton as our President, America, we will rise. — Cory Booker

My story starts with my dad, a black boy born to a single mother in a small town in North Carolina. It starts with my parents meeting in Washington, D.C., in the '60s, at a time of incredible activism. — Cory Booker

Athletes are still exploited. If they blow out their knee, if they somehow don't meet the mandates of a coach, they lose their scholarship. They don't get their degree. — Cory Booker

I'm very knowledgeable of the challenges before me. — Cory Booker

The more you limit your choices, thereby limiting thought, the more you can simplify your life and focus your energy elsewhere. — Cory Booker

When happy, be kind. When angry, be kind. When hopeful, be kind. When discouraged, be kind. When ever, be kind. — Cory Booker

You can't have a physical transformation until you have a spiritual transformation. — Cory Booker

The Constitution makes very clear what the obligation of the United States Senate is and what the obligation of the president of the United States is. To allow a Supreme Court position to remain vacant for well over a year cuts against what I think the intentions of the framers are and what the traditions of the Senate and the executive are. — Cory Booker

Give the respect you want to receive; embody the grace you hope to encounter; and help others with no expectations whatsoever. — Cory Booker

You need to understand something, you drink deeply from wells of freedom and liberty and opportunity that you did not dig. You eat lavishly from banquet tables prepared for you by your ancestors. You sit under the shade of trees that you did not plant or cultivate or care for. You have a choice in life, you can just sit back, getting fat, dumb, and happy, consuming all the blessings put before you, or it can metabolize inside of you, become fuel to get you into the fight, to make this democracy real, to make it true to its words that we can be a nation of liberty and justice for all. — Cory Booker

Don't speak to me about your religion; first show it to me in how you treat other people. Don't tell me how much you love your God; show me in how much you love all God's children. Don't preach to me your passion for your faith; teach me through your compassion for your neighbors. In the end, I'm not as interested in what you have to tell or sell as I am in how you choose to live and give. — Cory Booker

Our platform is crafted by Democrats but it is not about partisanship, its about pragmatism. — Cory Booker

This world has a way of trying to homogenize you. Trying to sanitize you. Trying to scrub you of your unique divine genius. This world wants to make you regular. — Cory Booker

In America, our differences matter, but our country matters more. That's the attitude I wanted to take to the Senate. — Cory Booker

I don't know what the strategy will be in Washington. The reality is, is, I have got to go down there, as my mentor, as people like Bill Bradley have told me to do, get to know your colleagues on both sides of the aisle, recognize that they, too, beat with the same heart and the same type of blood. — Cory Booker

I am a Yale Law School graduate. — Cory Booker

When I do my hiring in the United States Senate, I look at issues of diversity. — Cory Booker

I love talking about the challenges [Newark, NJ] has because of the way they are always brilliantly disguised as opportunities..the biggest global challenge that there is is a challenge of the spirit, a challenge of our vision, a challenge and a test of our ideals, of who we SAY we are GOING TO BE. — Cory Booker

Leadership is not a position or a title, it is action and example. — Cory Booker

When I was just a twenty-something, I came to Newark, and I found a connection to the city in a spiritual way. I found a connection here and people here that reminded me so much of my roots and my own family. — Cory Booker

My simple point is that I judge a person's faith by how they live their life, not by the tenets of their religion. I've watched the holiest of people walk past somebody in need or treat their staff mean. To me, the beauty of faith is only seen when people live it consistently or struggle to do so. — Cory Booker

We live in a nation where, when New Jersey figures out how to do something and does it well, and shows progress, it affects other states. — Cory Booker

I come from a mother who can cry at a G.E. commercial. — Cory Booker

May we help more than we hurt, may we seek to understand more than be understood and may we love more than we judge. — Cory Booker

If we want a great nation, we have to change it ourselves. — Cory Booker

It's incredibly flattering to be a U.S. senator, which I want to stay at for a long time. — Cory Booker

When I go about my own politics, I meet Tea Party supporters who I can work with in Congress, that I find common ground with. I find Tea Party supporters who won't let me get a sentence out without judging me. To say that there is a 'Tea Party supporter' is a gross generality. — Cory Booker

My dad set a clear model for me for what manhood was all about. — Cory Booker

Equal protection under the law - for race, religion, gender or sexual orientation - should not be subject to the most popular sentiments of the day. — Cory Booker

Patriotism is love of country. But you can't love your country without loving your countrymen and countrywomen. We don't always have to agree, but we must empower each other, we must find the common ground, we must build bridges across our differences to pursue the common good. — Cory Booker

Patriotism is a love of country. If you love your country, you should love your countrymen and women. It doesn't mean you always agree with them or even like them. It is understanding that we have interwoven destiny. — Cory Booker

Cynicism cripples our imagination and limits our ability to see faint possibilities amidst glaring problems. — Cory Booker

Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, 'I must keep going.' It's that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is not final. That voice that says to you, 'Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit.' — Cory Booker

I have not settled down with a life partner. — Cory Booker

The majority of our criminals that we lock up are non-violent offenders. — Cory Booker