Rand Paul Quotes & Sayings

This flirtation with isolationism in the Republican party is over. It's giving way to a more muscular foreign policy than I've been advocating. But I'm also advocating building up others. Build a small schoolhouse in Afghanistan to help a poor young girl have a say about her children will destroy the ideology more than a bomb. — Rand Paul

I think we can't be naive in dealing with the Russians or dealing with the Syrians. But at the same time, I think we could try to encourage - and I think this is what diplomacy should do - encourage the self-interests of all parties to believe that it is in their best interest to get evil actors or rogue actors such as Syria or Iran, if you try to have less belligerent and less bellicose behavior. — Rand Paul

I'm a different kind of Republican. I've introduced a five-year balanced budget. I've introduced the largest tax cut in our history. I stood for ten and a half hours on the Senate floor to defend your right to be left alone. — Rand Paul

We still need to be conscious of the fact that Russia has intercontinental ballistic missiles. — Rand Paul

Stop spending money you don't have. — Rand Paul

I think we need to treat everybody with dignity. — Rand Paul

No president has the right to say he is judge, jury and executioner — Rand Paul

Opponents of civil liberties contend the NSA data collection has made our country more safe, but even the most vocal defenders of the program have failed to identify a single thwarted plot. — Rand Paul

Income inequality is worse in towns run by Democrat mayors than in towns run by Republican mayors. — Rand Paul

There is often variations of evil on both sides of the war. What we have to decide is whether or not regime change is a good idea. It's what the neoconservatives have wanted. It's what the vast majority of those on the stage want. — Rand Paul

I'll tell you what a weakness is of this country [the USA]: there are a lot of people who are sick and tired because Washington does not play by the same rules that the American people have to play by. — Rand Paul

Using taxes to punish the rich, in reality, punishes everyone because we are all interconnected. High taxes and excessive regulation and massive debt are not working. — Rand Paul

For most of our history, no one dared to tell Americans, 'you don't build that.' — Rand Paul

The Supreme Court must strike down the government's illegal spying program as a violation of our Fourth Amendment right to privacy. — Rand Paul

Everybody is looking for an election where they can do something and participate. — Rand Paul

Toppling secular dictators in the Middle East has only led to chaos and the rise of radical Islam. — Rand Paul

Black unemployment is twice white unemployment and has been for decade after decade. — Rand Paul

The Constitution was not written to restrain the citizen's behavior, it was writtne to restrain the government's behavior. — Rand Paul

In 1979, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 in Smith v. Maryland that a few days' worth of phone records for a single individual were not protected by the Fourth Amendment. The NSA today, though, collects hundreds of millions of phone records from hundreds of millions of Americans without an individualized warrant. — Rand Paul

I think if we ban certain religions, if we censor the Internet, I think that at that point the terrorists will have won. — Rand Paul

I think we ought to quit sending [help] to countries that burn our flag. — Rand Paul

A Tea Party tidal wave is coming. — Rand Paul

I think my dad has helped me tremendously. — Rand Paul

People don't like to vote against something that's so incredibly popular. — Rand Paul

I would have voted 'no' on the Iraq war and 'yes' to Afghanistan. — Rand Paul

I think if you have a two-story office and you hire someone who's handicapped, it might be reasonable to let him have an office on the first floor rather than the government saying you have to have a $100,000 elevator. — Rand Paul

If our freedom is taken, the American dream will wither and die. — Rand Paul

If someone has Ebola at a cocktail party, they're contagious and you can catch it from them. — Rand Paul

I think we have a Tea Party mandate, and that Tea Party mandate is for good-government type of things, things like term limits, things like a balanced budget amendment, things like read the bills for goodness sakes, things like that maybe Congress should only pass legislation that they apply to themselves as well. — Rand Paul

We shouldn't be fearful of freedom, we shouldn't be fearful of individual liberty. — Rand Paul

I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, there is something profoundly un-American about using the brute force of government to bully someone. — Rand Paul

Why don't we see any questions from the press? Why don't we see anybody from the media saying, 'Mr. President, it's illegal, you started it, you are performing a program that is collecting all of the phone records from all Americans, it's been declared illegal from the second highest court in the land, why don't you stop?' — Rand Paul

I don't program or code or anything like that. — Rand Paul

Republicans traditionally say, 'oh, we'll cut domestic spending, but we won't touch the military.' The liberals - the ones who are good - will say, 'oh, we'll cut the military, but we won't cut domestic spending.' — Rand Paul

The Ukraine has a long history of either being part of the Soviet Union or within that sphere. — Rand Paul

I think young people of all races are interested in justice; maybe not so much taxes and regulations, but they're interested in justice and the right to privacy on the Internet. — Rand Paul

The other thing I said is the great irony is you will be back fighting against your own weapons. Had [Bashar] Assad been bombed when he used chemical weapons two years ago, ISIS would be in charge of all of Syria now. — Rand Paul

2007 was a long time ago, and events do change over long periods of time. — Rand Paul

The right to life is guaranteed to all Americans in the Declaration of Independence, and ensuring this is upheld is the Constitutional duty of all members of Congress. — Rand Paul

I was elected to the Senate in 2010 by people worried about our country, worried about our kids and their future. — Rand Paul

On vague wording of drone strike criteria: Are you going to just drop a hellfire missile on Jane Fonda? Are you going to drop a missile on Kent State? That's gobbledygook. — Rand Paul

You can't promulgate injustice without consequences. — Rand Paul

I am pleased though that there's a possibility of a diplomatic solution [in Syria]. I remain somewhat skeptical, but I am pleased that it's a possibility and I think people like myself who've been arguing for delaying this bombing, have allowed this diplomatic possibility to occur. — Rand Paul

I don't like the idea of telling private business owners - I abhor racism. I think it's a bad business decision to exclude anybody from your restaurant - but, at the same time, I do believe in private ownership. But I absolutely think there should be no discrimination in anything that gets any public funding. — Rand Paul

It is time for Hillary Clinton to permanently retire. — Rand Paul

I think women have come a long way. Women are in positions not because they're women, they're in positions because they're intelligent and they should be equal to their counterparts and treated equally. — Rand Paul

Standing up on the right to trial by jury is something that, really, a lot of people should agree with, you know, both on the Right and the Left. — Rand Paul

After all the sacrifice in Afghanistan and Iraq, why do we find ourselves in a more dangerous world? — Rand Paul

The government has a history of not treating people fairly, from the internment of Japanese Americans in World War II to African-Americans in the Civil Rights era. — Rand Paul

We will not cut one penny from the safety net until we've cut every penny from corporate welfare. — Rand Paul

We are borrowing $40,000 per second. — Rand Paul

The Life at Conception Act legislatively declares what most Americans believe and what science has long known - that human life begins at the moment of conception and, therefore, is entitled to legal protection from that point forward. — Rand Paul

I hate that Mosul is falling, but I also think that for 10 years we have supplied the Iraqis and they can't stand up and do anything to defend their country, and it is all up to us? — Rand Paul

I rode my bike to school every day from age five to age fourteen. It was a small town - you could go anywhere. — Rand Paul

We need to be fearful of companies that get so big that they can actually be directing policy. — Rand Paul

I think that by arming the allies of ISIS, the Islamic rebels against [Bashar] Assad, that we created a safe space or made that space bigger for ISIS to grow. — Rand Paul

The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don't think we need to name any names, do we? Our party is encumbered by an inconsistent approach to freedom. The new GOP will need to embrace liberty in both the economic and the personal sphere. — Rand Paul

The Founders never intended for Americans to trust their government. Our entire Constitution was predicated on the notion that government was a necessary evil, to be restrained and minimized as much as possible. — Rand Paul

We have Islamic rebels [in Syria] who've been eating the hearts or organs of their enemies. We have priests that have been killed. We have Christian villages that have been razed by Islamic rebels. We have Islamic rebels who say they don't recognize Israel and would just as soon attack Israel as [Bashar] Assad. So really, I see no clear-cut American interest, and I'm afraid that sometimes things unravel, and the situation could become less stable and not more stable. — Rand Paul

For too long, we've attached some mythic notion to government solutions, and yet, 40 years after we began the War on Poverty, poverty still abounds. — Rand Paul

The Democrats promised equalizing outcomes through unlimited federal assistance while Republicans offered something that seemed less tangible - the promise of equalizing opportunity through free markets. — Rand Paul

What is immoral for an individual to do, is immoral for a government to do — Rand Paul

Someone is an ignoramus who would say that, 'Oh, we had three hurricanes this year. This proves that somehow the climate is warming.' The earth is 4.5 billion years old, and you're going to say that we had four hurricanes and so it proves a theory? — Rand Paul

The real debate is, when does life begin? When life begins, it deserves protection. — Rand Paul

You can tell a person's religion 85 percent of the time from their phone records. — Rand Paul

We should revoke passports from any Americans or dual citizens who are fighting with ISIS. — Rand Paul

I don't think you will meet anyone in Israel who will ever burn the American flag. — Rand Paul

I'm not accusing anybody of being [Hitler], — Rand Paul

The Republican platform specifically says we don't believe in bailing out private business, and yet we did. — Rand Paul

Roll back federal spending to 2008 levels. — Rand Paul

In the aftermath of 9/11, the Patriot Act was rushed to the floor. Several hundred pages. Nobody read it ... But people voted because they were fearful and people said there could be another attack and Americans will blame me if I don't vote on this. — Rand Paul

I will not vote to send my sons, or your sons, daughters, brothers, sisters or friends to fight for a stalemate. — Rand Paul

Unless you really stand for something, people aren't motivated to go out and vote for you. — Rand Paul

I would rather not have contentious interviews. I'd rather do 30 minutes with Charlie Rose, laid back in a La-Z-Boy chair. — Rand Paul

The Republican promise is for policies that create economic growth. Republicans believe lower taxes, less regulation, balanced budgets, a solvent Social Security and Medicare will stimulate economic growth. — Rand Paul

You don't go into politics unless you want to win. — Rand Paul

I think there's evil on both sides [of Syria], and I think that's one reason I don't want to be involved in civil war. I see things in personal terms. I just can't see sending one of my sons - or your son or daughter - to fight in a civil war, where on one side we have a dictator, who in all likelihood gassed his people. — Rand Paul

All issues of crime are better addressed at the state level. — Rand Paul

I'm the leading voice in America for not arming the allies of ISIS. — Rand Paul

I'm an internationalist. I want to help others, not just kill terrorists. — Rand Paul

And when the time is right, I hope that African Americans will again look to the party of emancipation, civil liberty, and individual freedom. — Rand Paul

The U.S. should never get involved where we have no clear national interest. We should not intervene militarily in a country like Syria, where we can't separate friend from foe and might end up arming the very people who hate us the most. — Rand Paul

The state doesn't own your children. Parents own the children. — Rand Paul

In a free society, we will tolerate boorish people, who have abhorrent behavior, but if we're civilized people, we publicly criticize that, and don't belong to those groups or don't associate with those people. — Rand Paul

The 11 million, I think, are never going home, don't need to be sent home, and I would incorporate them into our society by giving them work visas and making them taxpayers. — Rand Paul

The main thing I say on war is that we need to obey the law and formally declare war. — Rand Paul

Really, having a gun registry and having to rely on the government to keep it secret, the government isn't so great at keeping confidences. — Rand Paul

Still people want to topple [Bashar] Assad. And then there will be chaos, and I think ISIS will then be in charge of Syria. — Rand Paul

I have a question, a question for the president: Do you hate all rich people, or just rich people who don't contribute to your campaign? Do you hate poor people or do you just hate poor people with jobs? — Rand Paul

I don't want my marriage or my guns registered in Washington. And if people have an opinion, it's a religious opinion that is heartly felt, obviously they should be allowed to practice that, and no government should interfere with them. — Rand Paul

The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Many of those people deserve to be in prison; however, some of them do not. — Rand Paul

I have a biology degree, okay? — Rand Paul

Let's say tomorrow that there was a president, that we elected a president that eliminated the bulk collection of data. Let's just say it happened. What do you think would happen? People are like 'the sky would fall. We would be overrun with jihadists.' Maybe we could rely on the Constitution. Maybe we could get warrants ... If you make the warrant specific, there's no limit to what you can get through a warrant. — Rand Paul

You shouldn't have one opinion when you're running and another when you're president. — Rand Paul

The Fourth Amendment was what we fought the revolution over! — Rand Paul

You can't have it both ways. You can't tell me that you're taxed enough already, and that you want constitutional government and then in the next breath say, 'Bring me home some bacon.' The pig has been picked clean. — Rand Paul

In the search for culpability for the tragedy in Ferguson, I mostly blame politicians. — Rand Paul

I think the vast majority of the American people say you shouldn't be able to collect my phone records if I'm not suspicious, if you don't have probable cause. — Rand Paul

We all either work for rich people or we sell stuff to rich people. So just punishing rich people is as bad for the economy as punishing anyone. Let's not punish anyone. Let's keep taxes low and let's cut spending. — Rand Paul

I think we've made the collection haystack so big, no one's ever getting through the haystack to find the needle. What we really need to do is isolate the haystack into a group of suspicious people and spend enormous resources looking at suspicious people, people who we have probable cause. — Rand Paul