Centrist Quotes & Sayings

I don't care if my opinion falls on the right or the left. I'm more of what I call a passionate centrist. I just believe what I believe. I'm not trying to prove anything for the right or the left. Which gives me freedom to make jokes about either side, too. — Larry Wilmore

I'm a centrist. There is a lot going on socially that I don't like, but I feel that in a democracy you work from the center, not because I like the center - I'm a marginalized person politically - but because the center is where things get done. — Richard Grossman

Being a Christian is not a political orientation for the president, but he is a centrist. — Cornel West

Many of us regard ourselves as mildly liberal or centrist politically, voice fairly pleasant sentiments about our poor children, contribute money to send poor kids to summer camp, feel benevolent. We're not nazis; we're nice people. We read sophisticated books. We go to church. We go to synagogue. Meanwhile, we put other people's children into an economic and environmental death zone. We make it hard for them to get out. We strip the place bare of amenities. And we sit back and say to ourselves, Well, I hope that they don't kill each other off. But if they do, it's not my fault. — Jonathan Kozol

I'm definitely a centrist and feel like both parties can be absurd. — Brad Bird

I'm an independent. I'm a centrist. A new generation is arriving that has grown up with a multiplicity of choice in every aspect of their lives, and yet politics is the last place that they are told that they should be satisfied with a choice between brand A and brand B. It doesn't fit the way they think. It doesn't fit the way they live. — John Avlon

Natural selection is not gene centrist and nor is biology all about genes; our comprehending minds are a result of our fast evolving culture. — Daniel Dennett

We instinctively feel an overwhelming desire to take sides: organic or conventional, fair or free trade, "pure" or genetically engineered food, wild or farm-raised fish. Like most things in life, though, the sensible answer lies somewhere between the extremes, somewhere in that dull but respectable placed called the pragmatic center. To be a centrist when it comes to food is, unfortunately, to be a radical. — James McWilliams

I'm getting a little tired of politicians trying to prove how 'moderate' and 'centrist' they are by taking more of my money and freedom. Where's this center - somewhere between Lenin and Stalin? — Ann Coulter

The one man more responsible for destroying the Democratic centrist revival, for throwing away the Clinton legacy, and for suicidally pitching his party to the populist left was Al Gore — Andrew Sullivan

Most centrist Democrats ... try to distance themselves from controversies that recall the 1960s. There are journalistic centrists as well, who avoid hard truths for the sake of acceptance and legitimacy. — Tom Hayden

My politics are very centrist and sometimes, especially when it comes to foreign affairs, lean to the right. — Peter Landesman

What people forget is that the most radical thing about Obama is that he was the first black man in history to imagine that he could become president, who was able to make other Americans believe it as well. Other than that, he is a centrist, just like I try to be. He's been bridging divisions his whole life. — Henry Louis Gates

When most presidents get in, they move to the center because they realize that this is a centrist country - even Reagan. — Edward Brooke

I'm getting nervous to be called a centrist. Breaking out in a rash. — Jeb Bush

Historically, the pull towards the center in European politics has been incredibly powerful. From Italy to Germany, it has been almost impossible for non-centrist forces to obtain real influence. — Jens Nordvig

The maximalist dreamers of this epoch, the Left Bolshevik (Vpered) group led by the philosopher of proletarian culture, Aleksandr Bogdanov, were effectively defeated by the hardheaded "centrist" Leninists by 1912. — Michael David-Fox

I consider my voice to be a centrist moderate voice among the nine Democratic candidates. — Bob Graham

I don't know of a Democrat - whether they're a conservative, a centrist or a liberal Democrat - that doesn't think that it's important to have quality jobs that pay decent wages so that families can support themselves, so that they can have the dignity of being able to afford health care, put money aside for pension, buy a home. — Tom Vilsack

In Living in Spanglish I posit the coming of existence of this forwars-looking race that obliterates all races, stripping away Vasaconelos's petty resentment of Anglo culture and patronizing Euro-centrist, and acknowledge a cultural-economic inevitability that is hemispheric in nature.
Note: Jose Vasaconelos wrote 1925 essay "La Raza cosmica" [The Cosmic Race] asserting, "Por mi raza hablara mi espiritu [The Spirit will speak through my race. — Ed Morales

Mao recalled: "Very many members of our family have given their lives, killed by the Kuomintang and the American imperialists. You grew up eating honey, and thus far you have never known suffering. In the future, if you do not become a rightist, but rather a centrist, I shall be satisfied. You have never suffered
how can you be a leftist?"
— Mao Tse-tung

The next little thing about this vote-for-the-lesser-evil trick, of course - and this is no secret to anyone anymore - is that it drives all the "serious" candidates toward what is commonly referred to as the "moderate center," even if these serious candidates aren't, in fact, moderate or centrist in any meaningful sense and the so-called center moves further to the right with each election cycle. For nearly two decades now this process has been steadily advancing on the Democratic side, as liberals are trained to accept the idea that the national majority will never accept a true labor party, or any candidate perceived as "soft" on defense. — Matt Taibbi

For most of my life, I've considered myself a political centrist. — Mark McKinnon

I'm a moderate and a centrist. That means I get flak from both sides. The upside is that I can vote for either party whenever I feel like it without any sense of obligation or betrayal. — Michael Totten

I'm someone who believes in centrist governing philosophy. — Scott McClellan

I'm really curious about the memory of Nixon for people who grew up under Clinton. What do people remember of him? In his day, the definition of a conservative right-wing president is more like a centrist in our own time. He's also one of our funnier presidents - just a really good character to write about. — Austin Grossman

I feel like a centrist, an issue-specific person. I'm pretty conservative fiscally and pretty liberal on social issues. — Howard Gordon

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

I am not a centrist. — Bella Abzug

I'm a pro-capitalist, middle-of-the-road, tepid centrist. — Anthony Lewis

Obama behaves like a centrist who leans tentatively left on certain social programs but boldly right on military force and civil liberties. — David K. Shipler

By temperament and disposition and emotions, I'm a liberal; but in my beliefs about what's best for the country, I'm a centrist. — Jonathan Haidt

My views tend to be centrist. I'm not a big fan of George W., but my politics tend to be more Republican than not. — Jeffrey Skoll

I think that in politics, when people want to discredit a particular position, they say, "Oh, they are liberals," or "They are conservatives; we are centrists." Everybody wants to be a centrist. — Robert Reich