Top 300 Bernie Sanders Quotes (2025 Update)
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201. “I am on the Health Education Labor Committee. That committee wrote the Affordable Care Act. The idea I would dismantle health care in America while we’re waiting to pass a Medicare for all is just not accurate.”

— Bernie Sanders

202. “Ben Carson and I don’t have much in common politically. But the fact is when you have kids getting involved in the political process, doing their best to elect the candidates of their choice, that’s what the American democracy is about.”

— Bernie Sanders

203. “People are hurting and angry, and they want something to be able to stand up and fight for. That’s what I believe the antidote is to Trumpism.”

— Bernie Sanders

204. “The debate is over. The scientific community has spoken in a virtually unanimous voice. Climate change is real. It is caused by human activity...”

— Bernie Sanders

205. “I do believe that in the future, not by dismantling what we have here – I helped write that bill – but by moving forward, rallying the American people, I do believe we should have health care for all.”

— Bernie Sanders

206. “In 2007, the top 1 percent earned 23.5 percent of all income, more than the bottom 50 percent. The top 1 percent now owns more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. That is not the foundation of a democratic society. That is the foundation for an oligarchic society. The rich get richer. The middle class shrinks. Poverty increases.”

— Bernie Sanders

207. “Instead of cutting Social Security, we’re going to expand Social Security benefits.”

— Bernie Sanders

208. “You want to know the way to raise money? Put a transaction fee on Wall Street, so maybe we can curb some of the speculation and raise some money.”

— Bernie Sanders

209. “I want to see working people and young people come into the party in a way that doesn’t exist now. And you know what, I want a 50-state strategy so the Democratic Party is not just the party of 25 states.”

— Bernie Sanders

210. “Your story is for – voting for every disastrous trade agreement, and voting for corporate America. Did I vote against the Wall Street bailout?”

— Bernie Sanders

211. “I would say that the key doctrine of the Sanders administration would be no, we cannot continue to do it alone; we need to work in coalition.”

— Bernie Sanders

212. “It is a public financing system that everybody knows is antiquated. It no longer works. Nobody can become president based on that system.”

— Bernie Sanders

213. “Raising money from the rich is not only debilitating, it’s time-consuming. While it is certainly not true for all, many wealthy contributors are arrogant and self-centered and demand a lot of time and access for the money they donate. Instead of just sending you a check, they want to talk, talk, and talk about their needs or the issues that concern them. This process drains the energy right out of you.”

— Bernie Sanders

214. “Can I work with corporations? Are there good corporations doing incredible cutting edge research and development? Absolutely they are. And we should be proud of them.”

— Bernie Sanders

215. “We don’t want to see our kids and grandchildren be the first generation in the modern history of America to have a lower standard of living than their parents.”

— Bernie Sanders

216. “I have been in the Democratic Caucus in the Senate for over 24 years.”

— Bernie Sanders

217. “In my view, we need a massive federal jobs program which puts millions of our people back to work. We must end our disastrous trade policies. We need to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. And we have to fight for pay equity for women.”

— Bernie Sanders

218. “I intend to introduce legislation that will make police accountable for their actions and limit uses of force in cases where it is unnecessary.”

— Bernie Sanders

219. “We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars maintaining 5,000 nuclear weapons. I think we need major reform in the military, making it more cost effective, but also focusing on the real crisis that faces America.”

— Bernie Sanders

220. “The rich and large corporations get richer, the CEOs earn huge compensation packages, and when things get bad, don’t worry; Uncle Sam and the American taxpayers are here to bail you out. But when you are in trouble, well, we just can’t afford to help you, if you are in the working class or middle class of this country.”

— Bernie Sanders

221. “I think the American people in many cases want to transform our energy system.”

— Bernie Sanders

222. “We’re not going to let the United States continue to have one of the highest rates of childhood poverty in the industrialized world in – at a time when we’re seeing a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires.”

— Bernie Sanders

223. “I think it makes people in the Pentagon kind of nervous to know that chemical agents and environmental factors could cause so much damage in terms of what may happen in the future.”

— Bernie Sanders

224. “As a nation, there are many issues we don’t talk about, we just don’t talk about, push them under the rug. Poverty is one of those issues.”

— Bernie Sanders

225. “Wall Street has enormous power over the Republican Party, enormous power over the Democratic Party.”

— Bernie Sanders

226. “I think you have an enormous amount of fear and uncertainty in this country. And it’s not just from San Bernardino or from Paris.”

— Bernie Sanders

227. “Democracy is about one person, one vote. It’s about all of us coming together to determine the future of our country. It is not about a handful of billionaires buying elections, or governors suppressing the vote by denying poor people or people of color the right to vote. Our job is to stand together to defeat the drift toward oligarchy and create a vibrant democracy.”

— Bernie Sanders

228. “We have more people in jail than any other country in Earth, disproportionately Latino and African-American.”

— Bernie Sanders

229. “I think it’s important that members of the United States Senate spend time not just on Capitol Hill but making contact with ordinary people and engaging them in the political process.”

— Bernie Sanders

230. “Today in America, more than 2 million people are in jail, disproportionately black, Latino, and Native American. That is a greater number of inmates than in any other country on earth – including China, which has a population four times greater than ours and an authoritarian government that does not tolerate dissent.”

— Bernie Sanders

231. “What are the moral implications? What do these people do when they have tremendous amounts of money? They use that money to perpetuate their own wealth and their own power. Every day, Congress works on behalf of big-money interests.”

— Bernie Sanders

232. “I do not accept the belief that the United States of America and our government can’t stand up to the ripoffs of the pharmaceutical industry which charge us by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.”

— Bernie Sanders

233. “I think, clearly, we got to work closely with China to resolve the serious problems we have, and I worry about Putin and his military adventurism in the Crimea and the Ukraine.”

— Bernie Sanders

234. “Do I consider myself a part of the casino capitalist process? No I don’t. I believe in a society where all people do well.”

— Bernie Sanders

235. “The Fed has got to become a more democratic institution that is responsive to the needs of the middle class, not just Wall Street CEOs.”

— Bernie Sanders

236. “I think we need to take on the greed of the billionaire class, a disastrous campaign finance system.”

— Bernie Sanders

237. “As President Franklin Delano Roosevelt reminded us: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little.”

— Bernie Sanders

238. “The Supreme Court decided that corporations are people and they have the right of free speech and the right without disclosure – all of this is through the Citizens United Supreme Court decision – to put as much money as they want into campaigns all over the country.”

— Bernie Sanders

239. “I believe in public funding of elections, absolutely. But this system iscurrently very antiquated and no longer applies to modern day politics.”

— Bernie Sanders

240. “The middle class in America is at a tipping point. It will not last another generation if we don’t boldly change course now.”

— Bernie Sanders

241. “Let’s ask why it is that we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, and your medicine can be doubled tomorrow, and there’s nothing that the government can do to stop it.”

— Bernie Sanders

242. “When I was a young boy, I can remember in the community that I grew up in, seeing people in the community who had numbers that were on their arms.”

— Bernie Sanders

243. “Politics in a democratic society should not be treated like a baseball game, a game show or a soap opera. The times are too serious for that.”

— Bernie Sanders

244. “I very strongly supported the agreement which makes certain that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.”

— Bernie Sanders

245. “We have to invest in our kids, we have to invest in our communities, we have to create jobs. We have to make certain that kids are not dropping out of school and hanging out on street corners.”

— Bernie Sanders

246. “There is no justice, and I want you to hear this clearly, when the top one-tenth of 1 percent – not 1 percent, the top one-tenth of 1 percent – today in America owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.”

— Bernie Sanders

247. “In August 2008, the General Accountability Office issued a report. According to this report, two out of every three corporations in the United States paid no Federal income taxes between 1998 and 2005.”

— Bernie Sanders

248. “Not one word about income inequality, climate change, Citizens United or student debt. That’s why the Rs are so out of touch.”

— Bernie Sanders

249. “I happen to respect people who are willing to come under public scrutiny and serve their country.”

— Bernie Sanders

250. “If you look at the newspapers here – the Washington papers – most of the discussion deals with campaign gossip.”

— Bernie Sanders