Top 100 Goldwater Quotes
#1. 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
#2. 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
#3. 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.
#4. Senator Goldwater would have been a great success in the movies - working for 18th century Fox.
Hubert H. Humphrey
#5. In preaching conservative doctrine, Goldwater's jeremiads seemed to be preaching the end of the old world, while Reagan's pep talks seemed to trumpet the beginning of a new one.
Scott Farris
#6. Reagan is described as delivering Barry Goldwater's doctrine with John F. Kennedy's technique.
H.W. Brands
#7. I have gone from a Barry Goldwater Republican to a New Democrat, but I think my underlying values have remained pretty constant; individual responsibility and community. I do not see those as being mutually inconsistent.
Hillary Clinton
#8. Then is when I decided to take it to Archie to see if they could do it as a comic book. I showed it to Richard Goldwater, and he showed it to his father, and a day or two later I got the OK to do it as a comic book.
Dan DeCarlo
#9. It would be a much better country if women did not vote. That is simply a fact. In fact, in every presidential election since 1950 - except Goldwater in '64 - the Republican would have won, if only the men had voted.
Ann Coulter
#10. In 1964, I tried to convince my grandfather, who was active in the New York City firefighters union, to vote for Barry Goldwater over Lyndon Johnson because at the time I thought his approach to limited government was right on.
Joe Lhota
#11. 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
#12. Do you realize that at the moment we have Barry Goldwater fighting the Moral Majority, with The New York Times rooting for Goldwater? Times have changed.
William A. Rusher
#13. 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
#14. Goldwater had never even considered a non-Arizonan. Like a man on his deathbed, he wanted to be surrounded only by friends.
Rick Perlstein
#15. I'm a conservative Republican. I have been since I was 15 years old and participated in the 'Goldwater for President' campaign in 1964.
John Bolton
#16. I like to say I'm more conservative than Goldwater. He just wanted to turn the clock back to when there was no income tax.
Pete Seeger
#17. I am a Libertarian Republican in the Goldwater style.
Roger Stone
#18. Goldwater hardly ever mentioned a statistic. He hardly ever used it EXAMPLE. He presumed you already knew what he meant. Reagan SHOWED you.
Rick Perlstein
#19. 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
#20. Bill Rehnquist makes Barry Goldwater look like a liberal.
John Dean
#21. 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
#22. Barry Goldwater has definitely decided to be a candidate in '64. He will campaign in all thirteen states.
George Carlin
#23. Goldwater's approach to any political problem invariably derived from the evidence of his own eyes.
Rick Perlstein
#24. They told me if I voted for Goldwater, he would get us into a war in Vietnam. Well, I voted for Goldwater and that's what happened.
William F. Buckley Jr.
#25. A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away
Barry M. Goldwater
#26. We cannot allow the American flag to be shot at anywhere on earth if we are to retain our respect and prestige
Barry Goldwater
#27. Without the National Federation of Republican Women, there would be no Republican Party.
Barry Goldwater
#28. 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
#29. The constitution is an instrument, above all, for LIMITING the functions of government.
Barry Goldwater
#30. 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
#31. Government should stay the hell out of people's business.
Barry Goldwater
#33. I certainly believe in aliens in space, and that they are indeed visiting our planet. They may not look like us, but I have very strong feelings that they have advanced beyond our mental capabilities.
Barry Goldwater
#34. 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
#36. To insist on strength ... is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering.
Barry Goldwater
#37. Unlimited campaign spending eats at the heart of the democratic process.
Barry Goldwater
#38. Any pilot can describe the mechanics of flying. What it can do for the spirit of man is beyond description.
Barry Goldwater
#39. Sex and politics are a lot alike. You don't have to be good at them to enjoy them.
Barry M. Goldwater
#40. It is impossible to maintain freedom and order and justice without religious and moral sanctions.
Barry Goldwater
#41. I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle.
Barry Goldwater
#42. 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
#43. The fellow has absolutely no principles."Money and gall" is all he has.
Barry Goldwater
#44. 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
#45. 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
#47. I've played everything - baseball, football, basketball. I can still swim a mile a day. That's why I can't walk.
Barry Goldwater
#48. It's a great country, where anybody can grow up to be president ... except me.
Barry Goldwater
#49. 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
#50. I understand Jacqueline Kennedy has redone the White House in eighteenth-century style. Why, then, I'd fit in perfectly.
Barry Goldwater
#51. There's no greater service to this country than the defense of its freedom.
Barry Goldwater
#52. A woman has a right to an abortion. That's a decision that's up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right.
Barry Goldwater
#53. The time has come to recognize the United Nations for the anti-American, anti-freedom organization that it has become. The time has come for us to cut off all financial help, withdraw as a member, and ask the United Nations to find headquarters location outside the United States that is
Barry Goldwater
#54. 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
#55. 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
#56. History has to judge every man who served. I don't know how they're going to treat me. I may be the worst S.O.B. that ever came down the pike. But I won't lose any sleep over it. I just like to be remembered as an honest person who tried.
Barry Goldwater
#57. 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
#58. 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
#59. Women are hard enough to handle now without giving them a gun!
Barry Goldwater
#60. 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
#61. 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
#62. I thought of something my old coach at Staunton had often said: 'We win some, we lose some, and some get rained out; but we always suit up.'
Barry Goldwater
#63. 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
#65. 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
#66. We have enough trouble with women without giving them M16 rifles.
Barry Goldwater
#67. Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States
Barry M. Goldwater
#68. I'd rather see a woman elected ... They understand they can't spend more money than the old man brings home.
Barry Goldwater
#69. 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
#70. 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
#71. You don't need to be straight to fight and die for your country. You just need to shoot straight.
Barry Goldwater
#72. If you don't mind smelling like peanut butter for two or three days, peanut butter is darn good shaving cream.
Barry Goldwater
#73. When fraternities are not allowed, Communism flourishes. Young men who are inexperienced but have faith are more useful than older, experienced men without faith. The fraternity system is a bastion of American strength.
Barry Goldwater
#74. I fear Washington and centralized government more than I do Moscow.
Barry Goldwater
#75. Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar.
Barry Goldwater
#77. The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.
Barry Goldwater
#78. 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
#79. A man from the west will fight over three things: water, women and gold, and usually in that order.
Barry Goldwater
#81. 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
#82. Trade unions infringe upon the property rights of company owners.
Barry Goldwater
#83. [He]talks so fast that listening to him is like trying to read Playboy magazine with your wife turning the pages.
Barry M. Goldwater
#84. To my mind the single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom.
Barry Goldwater
#85. I have the unmitigated gall to think that I could lead men anywhere, business, politics or combat.
Barry Goldwater
#87. 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
#88. You've got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you're going to hit civilians.
Barry Goldwater
#89. It's political Daddyism and it's as old as demagogues and despotism.
Barry Goldwater
#90. The Republicans have a positive talent for self-destruction.
Barry Goldwater
#91. I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.
Barry Goldwater
#92. 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
#93. 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
#94. The only summit meeting that can succeed is the one that does not take place.
Barry Goldwater
#95. 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
#96. Some programs have been theatrical masterpieces, but all we're seeing is the negative side of nuclear war.
Barry Goldwater
#97. You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.
Barry Goldwater
#98. 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
#99. We are on the Colorado ... that means something more to me than thoughts of electrical power or a harnessed river.
Barry Goldwater
#100. American business has just forgotten the importance of selling.
Barry Goldwater
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