Top 50 Charles Schumer Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Anyone who thinks they have a monopoly on truth, and there is only one way to see the world, always gets us into trouble.”

— Charles Schumer

2. “In today’s competitive economy, to stand still is to die.”

— Charles Schumer

3. “Inaction is perhaps the greatest mistake of all.”

— Charles Schumer

4. “If we say the Geneva Convention is obsolete, then what do others who have our soldiers say?”

— Charles Schumer

5. “I basically believe that until China stop stealing our intellectual property, and until they stop keeping our companies out that do good things, the amount we will gain from export jobs is minimized, and the amount we lose in middle class incomes is maximized.”

— Charles Schumer

6. “I think we could be at a tipping point.”

— Charles Schumer

7. “I’d like to see the health care professionals making decisions, not some bureaucrat in Indianapolis working for an insurance company.”

— Charles Schumer

8. “Bigotry has always been the poison of America, and we oughta do everything to eradicate it with no excuses or explanations.”

— Charles Schumer

9. “Candidates With Deeply Held Christian Beliefs Are Unfit and Disqualified From Serving As A Federal Judge.”

— Charles Schumer

10. “When Mitt Romney says he wants to reform the tax code, hold onto your wallets.”

— Charles Schumer

11. “We’re going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We’re going to beat guns into submission!”

— Charles Schumer

12. “When Mitt Romney says he wants to reform the tax code, hold on to your wallets. We know Mitt Romney never met a tax haven he didn’t like. But his new favorite tax haven is actually not the Cayman Islands – its Paul Ryan’s budget.”

— Charles Schumer

13. “All we ask for is registration, just like we do for cars.”

— Charles Schumer

14. “I’m strongly for a patient Bill of Rights. Decisions ought to be made by doctors, not accountants.”

— Charles Schumer

15. “Giving up even an ounce of precious freedom is a very serious thing to do.”

— Charles Schumer

16. “Let me say this, to all of the chattering class that so much focuses on those little tiny, yes, porky amendments – the American people really don’t care.”

— Charles Schumer

17. “In a brave new world, a post-September 11 world, anyone is going to make certain mistakes. The mistakes that have been made on homeland security, on protecting our Nation from another terrorist attack, are mistakes of omission. We are simply not doing enough.”

— Charles Schumer

18. “There are two tests in life, more important than any other test. On Monday morning, when you wake up, do you feel in the pit of your stomach you can’t wait to go to work? And when you’re ready to go home Friday afternoon, do you say, ‘I can’t wait to go home?’”

— Charles Schumer

19. “Democrats don’t relate to middle-class people.”

— Charles Schumer

20. “Soft money will find its way and seep into the political system and corrode it, unless we plug every hole.”

— Charles Schumer

21. “Biking through New York’s boroughs in 2005, I thought about some old friends, Joe and Eileen Bailey. Though they are imaginary, I frequently talk to them.”

— Charles Schumer

22. “The greatest problem America faces is the decline of middle class incomes.”

— Charles Schumer

23. “When someone takes a private photo, on a private cell phone, it should remain just that: private.”

— Charles Schumer

24. “We’re here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true...”

— Charles Schumer

25. “Palestinians don’t really believe in a state of Israel. They, unlike a majority of Israelis, who have come to the conclusion that they can live with a two-state solution to be determined by the parties, the majority of Palestinians are still very reluctant, and they need to be pushed to get there.”

— Charles Schumer

26. “Arafat was a barrier to peace.”

— Charles Schumer

27. “America is a place where we all come together. It is a place of consensus.”

— Charles Schumer

28. “I think on this issue more than any other we’re going to see sort of a bipartisan longing to get something done, and hopefully you’re not going to find the fisticuffs that you would find on lots of other issues. I think you’ll be able to glean a sense of progress without us revealing the specifics.”

— Charles Schumer

29. “You do have to change things as warfare changes.”

— Charles Schumer

30. “I made education the highest priority of my campaign – actually education and jobs – and the reason is a simple one: I think the future of America depends on it.”

— Charles Schumer

31. “I think teaching should be an exalted profession, not a picked-on profession.”

— Charles Schumer

32. “A devastating commentary on the war in Iraq is that we have been unable to spend money on infrastructure.”

— Charles Schumer

33. “The export market is based, on high-paying jobs. I’ve seen statistics that show that people make over 88 a year generally benefit from this because these are export jobs.”

— Charles Schumer

34. “I respect people who feel things passionately. I do. But when someone is a judge, that is not what they should bring to the bench. It is not really passion, except in rare instances, that serves the bench well. It is, rather, an ability to understand the law and follow it.”

— Charles Schumer

35. “It is essential that all Americans take the time to honor and remember those individuals who gave their lives in defense of our liberty.”

— Charles Schumer

36. “But I don’t think the Democratic Party is at eye level with the middle class.”

— Charles Schumer

37. “Ideological warriors whether from the Left or the Right are bad news for the bench. They tend to make law, not interpret law. And that’s not what any of us should want from our judges.”

— Charles Schumer

38. “When one has success, the answer is not to undo that success. It is to continue what has been done.”

— Charles Schumer

39. “We need to make sure middle-class people are able to pay the bills. We need to make sure that poor people don’t starve. Those are values, too.”

— Charles Schumer

40. “I want to attract the best people into teaching.”

— Charles Schumer

41. “You can set up whatever negotiations or structure you want, but until the Palestinians are willing to accept the fact, as the majority of Israelis do, that there should be two states between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, we won’t have peace.”

— Charles Schumer

42. “Well, I think it’s too early to call Fallujah a failure.”

— Charles Schumer

43. “I went to the public schools myself. And they were great for me.”

— Charles Schumer

44. “So I want my kids to go to public schools because I think it’s a better education overall.”

— Charles Schumer

45. “Unfortunately, the administration’s plan is an ounce of cure for a pound of problems.”

— Charles Schumer

46. “There are many reasons why Mitt Romney should not become president, but perhaps the most important of all is the narrowness of his experience, perspective and vision.”

— Charles Schumer

47. “As long as the Palestinians send terrorists onto school buses and to nightclubs to blow up people, Israel has no choice but to build the fence.”

— Charles Schumer

48. “The bottom line is very simple. You negotiate on this, they will up the ante for the debt ceiling.”

— Charles Schumer

49. “If we are going to stay a great power and I hope and pray we will we need the truth. We need to know what is going right and we need to know what is going wrong. There is no greater time than now.”

— Charles Schumer

50. “We tend to talk, Democrats, as a party, in legislative terms.”

— Charles Schumer