Goldwater Barry Quotes & Sayings

We have enough trouble with women without giving them M16 rifles. — Barry Goldwater

In your heart you know he's right. — Barry Goldwater

I am frankly sick and tired of the political preachers telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? — Barry M. Goldwater

Trade unions infringe upon the property rights of company owners. — Barry Goldwater

Without the National Federation of Republican Women, there would be no Republican Party. — Barry Goldwater

Republicans think that [Ted] Cruz would be like Barry Goldwater. He'd lose in a landslide and pull the party down with him. They'd lose Senate and House seats. — Mara Liasson

Liberals and leftists have been dismissing inconvenient facts by attacking motives for generations. In the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, Soviet spies and abettors attacked the motives of their accusers because the fact of their guilt was undeniable. In the 1960s, over a thousand psychiatrists who'd never even met Barry Goldwater signed a petition saying the GOP candidate was too mentally unstable to be president. — Jonah Goldberg

We cannot allow the American flag to be shot at anywhere on earth if we are to retain our respect and prestige — Barry Goldwater

Throughout history civilian populations and political rulers have talked of peace. We have never been free of war. The soldier, whose profession is war, understands that peace must be enforced by superior military might. The certainty of defeat is the only effective deterrent we can use to maintain peace. Furthermore, we can be strong without being aggressive. — Barry Goldwater

Imagine a senator running for president whose positions included halving the military budget, socializing the medical system, re-regulating the communications and electrical industries, establishing a guaranteed minimum income for all Americans, and equalizing funding for all schools regardless of property valuations - and who promised to fire Alan Greenspan, counseled withdrawal from the World Trade Organization, and, for good measure, spoke warmly of adolescent sexual experimentation. That was Barry Goldwater, conservative. — Rick Perlstein

Today neither of our two parties maintains a meaningful commitment to the principle of States' Rights. The 10th Amendment is not a 'general assumption' but a rule of law. States rights mean that states have a right to act or not to act, as they see fit, in areas reserved to them. — Barry Goldwater

Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar. — Barry Goldwater

I say that when you elect a president you want a man to manage the legitimate business of your government. The government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it away. — Barry Goldwater

Sex and politics are a lot alike. You don't have to be good at them to enjoy them. — Barry M. Goldwater

I'm a liberal to a degree, I want everybody to be free. But if you think that I'll let Barry Goldwater move in next door. — Bob Dylan

To disagree one doesnt have to be disagreeable — Barry M. Goldwater

Most important of all: in our anxiety to "improve" the world and insure "progress" we have permitted our schools to become laboratories for social and economic change according to the predilections of the professional educators. We have forgotten that the proper function of the school is to transmit the cultural heritage of one generation to the next generation, and to so train the minds of the new generation as to make them capable of absorbing ancient learning and applying it to the problem of its own day. The — Barry M. Goldwater

Unlimited campaign spending eats at the heart of the democratic process. — Barry Goldwater

I wouldn't trust Nixon from here to that phone. — Barry Goldwater

We now have a president who tries to save money by turning off lights in the White House, even as he heads toward a staggering addition to the national debt. "L.B.J." should stand for Light Bulb Johnson. — Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater has definitely decided to be a candidate in '64. He will campaign in all thirteen states. — George Carlin

I feel certain that Conservatism is through unless Conservatives can demonstrate and communicate the difference between being concerned with [the unemployed, the sick without medical care, human welfare, etc.] and believing that the federal government is the proper agent for their solution. — Barry M. Goldwater

I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue! — Barry M. Goldwater

You've got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you're going to hit civilians. — Barry Goldwater

He [Barry Goldwater] was called "the cheerful malcontent." It takes a rare and fine temperament to wed that adjective with that noun. His emotional equipoise was undisturbed by the loss of 44 states as a presidential nominee. Perhaps he sensed that he had won the future. We
27,178,188 of us
who voted for him in 1964 believe he won, it just took 16 years to count the votes. — George F. Will

I think a current understanding about urban behavior tells us that it's important that people get out and be able to get away from the concrete jungles and the dense environment where they live for their own mental well-being. If they don't do this, the costs in human loss and human sickness will be far greater than what we would be expending for these kinds of releases and open spaces. — Barry Goldwater

I've always said I have nothing against a woman doing anything a man can do as long as she gets home in time to cook dinner. — Barry Goldwater

Somebody bugged Barry Goldwater's apartment during the 1964 election without it triggering a national trauma. The Johnson administration tapped the phones of Nixon supporters in 1968, and again nothing happened. John F. Kennedy regaled reporters with intimate details from the tax returns of wealthy Republican donors, and none of the reporters saw anything amiss. FDR used the Federal Bureau of Investigation to spy on opponents of intervention into World War II
and his targets howled without result. If Watergate could so transform the nation's sense of itself, why did those previous abuses, which were equally well known to the press, not do so? Americans did not lose their faith in institutions because of the Watergate scandal; Watergate became a scandal because Americans were losing faith in their institutions. — David Frum

On Hillary Clinton, who was an ardent Goldwater supporter in 1964: 'If he'd let his wife run business, I think he'd be better off ... I just like the way she acts. I've never met her, but I sent her a bag of chili, and she invited me to come to the White House some night and said she'd cook chili for me. Someday, maybe.' — Barry Goldwater

I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright Patterson Air Force Base where the information is stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret. — Barry Goldwater

Bill Rehnquist makes Barry Goldwater look like a liberal. — John Dean

It's political Daddyism and it's as old as demagogues and despotism. — Barry Goldwater

I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle. — Barry Goldwater

The Republicans have a positive talent for self-destruction. — Barry Goldwater

Government should stay the hell out of people's business. — Barry Goldwater

It was hard to listen to Goldwater and realize that a man could be half Jewish and yet sometimes appear twice as dense as the normal Gentile. — I. F. Stone

I think any man in business would be foolish to fool around with his secretary. If it's somebody else's secretary, fine. — Barry Goldwater

The best thing Clinton could do - I think I wrote him a letter about this, but I'm not sure - is to shut up. He has no discipline. — Barry Goldwater

A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away — Barry M. Goldwater

I found Mr. Carter's actions toward the Republic of China so incredible that they defy description by socially acceptable expletives. If December 7, 1941 was a "day of infamy" then December 15, 1978 ranks right up there in international betrayal ... The pathetic thing about this whole mess, however, is that it is typical of this administration's conduct of foreign affairs, which could be kindly described as being riddled by ineptitude and hypocrisy. — Barry Goldwater

I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass. — Barry Goldwater

Before there was Ronald Reagan there was Barry Goldwater, and before there was Barry, there was National Review , and before there was National Review there was Bill Buckley with a spark in his mind. — William F. Buckley Jr.

At this sunset hour, the canyon walls are indescribably beautiful and I fear the magic of photography can never record what I see now. The tall spires near the canyon's top and the walls of the canyon up there look as if God had reached out and swiped a brush of golden paint across them, gilding these rocks in the bright glow of the setting sun. — Barry Goldwater

I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C" and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism. — Barry M. Goldwater

My favorite politician was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, who reminded me of Tom Mix, and there wasn't any way to explain that to anybody. — Bob Dylan

Nixon was the most dishonest individual I have ever met in my life. He lied to his wife, his family, his friends, his colleagues in the Congress, lifetime members of his own political party, the American people and the world. — Barry Goldwater

Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives — Barry Goldwater

I will offer a choice, not an echo. — Barry Goldwater

The constitution is an instrument, above all, for LIMITING the functions of government. — Barry Goldwater

I say further that for this great legislative body to ignore the Constitution and the fundamental concepts of our governmental system is to act in a manner which could ultimately destroy the freedom of all American citizens, including the freedoms of the very persons whose feelings and whose liberties are the major subject of this legislation. — Barry Goldwater

I have characterized Nixon as a loner, a cold man with great self-confidence and a one-track mind centered on the advancement of Richard Nixon. — Barry Goldwater

The big thing is to make this country ... quit discriminating against people just because they're gay. You don't have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay ... They're American citizens. — Barry Goldwater

The Trilateralist Commission is international ... (and) ... is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. The Trilateralist Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power - political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical. — Barry Goldwater

I'm the most underdog underdog there is. — Barry Goldwater

Conservatism, we are told, is out-of-date. This charge is preposterous and we ought to boldly say so. The laws of God, and of nature, have no dateline. [ ... ] These principles are derived from the nature of man, and from the truths that God has revealed about His creation. [ ... ] To suggest that the Conservative philosophy is out of date is akin to saying that the Golden Rule, or the Ten Commandments or Aristotle 's Politics are out of date. — Barry Goldwater

To my mind the single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom. — Barry Goldwater

Some programs have been theatrical masterpieces, but all we're seeing is the negative side of nuclear war. — Barry Goldwater

It is true that I was denied access to a facility at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, because I never got in. I can't tell you what was inside. We both know about the rumors concerning a captured UFO and crew members. I have never seen what I would call a UFO, but I have intelligent friends who have. — Barry Goldwater

You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight. — Barry Goldwater

We shall return to proven ways - not because they are old, but because they are true. — Barry Goldwater

While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. — Barry Goldwater

The great decisions of government cannot be dictated by the concerns of religious factions ... We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs of state separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and we mustn't stop now. To retreat from that separation would violate the principles of conservatism and the values upon which the framers built this democratic republic. — Barry Goldwater

He was a superb military officer but he was also an extraordinarily gifted politician. That he was an unusually open, honest and no-nonsense politician did not make him unsuited for the profession, only uncommon. In uniform and in politics Barry's purpose was always the defense of freedom. And nobody before or since managed the task more ably or more colorfully than Barry Goldwater. — John McCain

I won't say that the papers misquote me, but I sometimes wonder where Christianity would be today if some of those reporters had been Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. — Barry Goldwater

By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars. Throughout our two hundred plus years, public policy debate has focused on political and economic issues, on which there can be compromise ... — Barry Goldwater

And here we encounter the seeds of government disaster and collapse - the kind that wrecked ancient Rome and every other civilization that allowed a sociopolitical monster called the welfare state to exist. — Barry Goldwater

After one of his [Hubert Humphrey] long-winded harangues I suggested he had probably been vaccinated with a phonograph needle. He responded by saying that I would have been a great success in the movies working for Eighteenth Century-Fox. — Barry Goldwater

Perserverance ... that's been the story of my family. — Barry Goldwater

Any pilot can describe the mechanics of flying. What it can do for the spirit of man is beyond description. — Barry Goldwater

I fear Washington and centralized government more than I do Moscow. — Barry Goldwater

Reagan is described as delivering Barry Goldwater's doctrine with John F. Kennedy's technique. — H.W. Brands

There's no greater service to this country than the defense of its freedom. — Barry Goldwater

Social and cultural change, however desirable, should not be effected by the engines of national power. Let us, through persuasion and education, seek to improve institutions we deem defective. But let us, in doing so, respect the orderly processes of the law. Any other course enthrones tyrants and dooms freedom. — Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan had tremendous influence on generations of American because, even if people disagreed with them, they admired them because they made very strong commitments to things they believed in. — Phil Crane

I understand Jacqueline Kennedy has redone the White House in eighteenth-century style. Why, then, I'd fit in perfectly. — Barry Goldwater

Barry Goldwater once said, 'I'd rather be right than president.' I can't tell you how much I disagree with that Barry Goldwater. — Howard Dean

If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government. — Barry Goldwater

Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes- and who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible? — Barry Goldwater

Small men, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity. — Barry Goldwater

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" ... in an airport in '64, Goldwater said, 'Well, keep punching, Hubert' during a chance meeting there.
By the end of 1977, it became increasingly clear that the Boss (Hubert Humphrey) would not be around much longer. And on the Senate floor one day, Barry Goldwater walked across the aisle and enveloped Hubert Humphrey. Goldwater was so big and Humphrey so frail that Humphrey almost disappeared. The two men stood for a long moment, locked in a hug, and I could see that both men were crying. They made no effort to hide it."
- Joe Biden (Promises to Keep: On Life and Politics) — Joe Biden

The oldest philosophy in the world is conservatism, and I go clear back to the first Greeks ... When you say 'radical right' today, I think of these moneymaking ventures by fellows like Pat Robertson and others who are trying to take the Republican Party away from the Republican Party, and make a religious organization out of it. If that ever happens, kiss politics goodbye. — Barry Goldwater

If you don't mind smelling like peanut butter for two or three days, peanut butter is darn good shaving cream. — Barry Goldwater

[My father ] came home from World War II and he voted for [Dwight] Eisenhower. He was pretty thoughtful about those things, but never, as I said, ever campaigned for anybody. He let me put a [Barry] Goldwater sticker on his pickup truck, but he never put a bumper sticker on his car. We never had a yard sign or anything in our yards, never contributed to anybody's campaign. — Jeff Sessions

Well, once you've been in the Canyon and once you've sort of fallen in love with it, it never ends ... it's always been a fascinating place to me, in fact I've often said that if I ever had a mistress it would be the Grand Canyon. — Barry Goldwater

None of us here in Washington knows all or even half of the answers ... If you love your country, don't depend on handouts from Washington for your information. If you cherish your freedom, don't leave it all up to big government. — Barry Goldwater

Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northern Ireland or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state? — Barry Goldwater

It is safe to say that the U.S. Congress is now run by paid staffers, not by people elected to do the job. — Barry Goldwater

I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don't hurt anyone else in the process. — Barry Goldwater

It is impossible to maintain freedom and order and justice without religious and moral sanctions. — Barry Goldwater

To insist on strength ... is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering. — Barry Goldwater

When white and black and brown and every other color decide they're going to live together as Christians, then and only then are we going to see an end to these troubles. — Barry Goldwater

They propound the first principle of totalitarianism: that the State is competent to do all things and is limited in what it actually does only by the will of those who control the State. It is clear that this view is in direct conflict with the Constitution which is an instrument, above all, for limiting the functions of government, and which is as binding today as when it was written. — Barry M. Goldwater

The Barry Goldwater movement excited the depths because the apocalypse was brought more near, and like millions of other whites, I had been leading a life which was a trifle too pointless and a trifle too full of guilt and my gullet was close to nausea with the empty promises of an empty liberal center. — Norman Mailer

A man from the west will fight over three things: water, women and gold, and usually in that order. — Barry Goldwater

One way we exercise political freedom is to vote for the candidate of our choice. Another way is to use our money to try to persuade other voters to make a similar choice - that is, to contribute to our candidate's campaign. If either of these freedoms is violated, the consequences are very grave not only for the individual voter and contributor, but for the society whose free political processes depend on a wide distribution of political power. — Barry Goldwater

My mother took us to services at the Episcopal church. Yet she always said that God was not just inside the four walls of a house of worship, but everywhere - in the rising sun over Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, a splash of water along the nearby Salt or Verde rivers, or clouds driving over the Estrella Mountains, south of downtown. I've always thought of God in those terms. — Barry Goldwater

Having spent 37 years of my life in the military as a reservist, and never having met a gay in all of that time, and never having even talked about it in all those years, I just thought, why the hell shouldn't they serve? They're American citizens. As long as they're not doing things that are harmful to anyone else ... So I came out for it. — Barry Goldwater

On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this Supreme Being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. — Barry Goldwater

Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them. — Barry M. Goldwater

I think some highly secret government UFO investigations are going on that we don't know about
and probably never will unless the Air Force discloses them. — Barry Goldwater