Top 30 Dick Gephardt Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “Life is the division of human cells, a process which begins at conception.”

— Dick Gephardt

2. “I don’t think you can be a good listener unless you’re a good listener. I think it’s something that you really have to do, and if you really do it, then you can do it. If you don’t do it, then you can’t do it.”

— Dick Gephardt

3. “I grew up in a household that was a labor household. My dad was a Teamster and a milk truck driver. My mother was a secretary. Neither of them got through high school. But they worked hard and they gave me very, very important opportunities to go to school, get a good education.”

— Dick Gephardt

4. “Politics is a substitute for violence.”

— Dick Gephardt

5. “Those who have prospered and profited from life’s lottery have a moral obligation to share their good fortune.”

— Dick Gephardt

6. “I had the honor to meet Nelson Mandela, and I heard him explain his forgiveness of his captors of 27 years by saying hatred and bitterness is destructive – the power is in love and forgiveness.”

— Dick Gephardt

7. “Al Gore is a good man. He is a decent, caring man. He listens to his heart and his head. He loves his family.”

— Dick Gephardt

8. “I think when everything is finally considered, I’ll have a lot of support – strong support – not only from labor unions but from working people.”

— Dick Gephardt

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9. “And the president should be doing more about education than saying, ‘Lights, camera, action.’”

— Dick Gephardt

10. “I think in some cases busing did improve the situation in some areas; in some cases it didn’t. We had busing in St. Louis, and it has been ended and we are using other methods of trying to better integrate the schools.”

— Dick Gephardt

11. “I was raised in a working class family of Baptist faith, and I went to college on a church scholarship where early teachings were reinforced. Abortion was wrong, I was taught.”

— Dick Gephardt

12. “I’ve always had good energy; I’ve always had good health.”

— Dick Gephardt

13. “I’m running for president because I’ve had enough of the oil barons, the status-quo apologists, the special-interest lobbyists running amok.”

— Dick Gephardt

14. “We can see beyond the present shadows of war in the Middle East to a new world order where the strong work together to deter and stop aggression. This was precisely Franklin Roosevelt’s and Winston Churchill’s vision for peace for the post-war period.”

— Dick Gephardt

Featured in: Strong Quotes

15. “America is a great country. We are so wealthy. But our one remaining challenge is to fulfill the potential of all our people. And the only way we can do that is to try to bring everybody together to a higher place.”

— Dick Gephardt

16. “I share the administration’s goals in dealing with Iraq and its weapons of mass destruction.”

— Dick Gephardt

17. “One of the big mistakes Republicans made with the Contract with America is that they tried to do too much too fast, and people revolted against it.”

— Dick Gephardt

18. “I have been a long and strong supporter of civil rights in my whole career. I led the fight to get the voting rights act re-enacted. I have been a strong supporter of affirmative action. I believe in it strongly.”

— Dick Gephardt

Featured in: Strong Quotes

19. “The people I’m honored to represent in Missouri and all over the country want leaders to address their kitchen table everyday problems.”

— Dick Gephardt

20. “Eventually I foresee voting on the Internet, which will lead to much more direct democracy.”

— Dick Gephardt

21. “When I’m president, we’ll have executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day.”

— Dick Gephardt

22. “I hope we can get back to what I call the kitchen table. Everyday issues that people are really worried about and focused on.”

— Dick Gephardt

23. “The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students.”

— Dick Gephardt

24. “Why would we want to keep a tax cut that’s failed? Why would we not want to go back to the Clinton tax code? And why would we not want to help every family more with a health-care plan like mine? Let’s help average people. Let’s be Democrats.”

— Dick Gephardt

25. “I’ve thought a lot about the world and how George Bush sees the world and it ain’t even close.”

— Dick Gephardt

26. “What we have is two important values in conflict: freedom of speech and our desire for healthy campaigns in a healthy democracy. You can’t have both.”

— Dick Gephardt

27. “I think a lot of people think I was born in a blue suit, on the David Brinkley show. And that isn’t me. I am much more that kid who grew up in South St. Louis, in a very modest household, with a simple background with parents who didn’t get through high school.”

— Dick Gephardt

28. “I led the fight for the Clinton health care plan in 1994. We failed. I learned from that experience. What I learned is you can’t pass a complicated government-run plan.”

— Dick Gephardt

29. “Every proposal I’m making, every idea I’m advancing has a single, central purpose: to revive a failing economy and give working Americans the help and security they need.”

— Dick Gephardt

30. “I filed a brief as a friend of the court in the U. of Michigan to keep affirmative action at the U. of Michigan, which I attended the law school. And I was one of the original sponsors of making the Martin Luther King birthday a federal holiday.”

— Dick Gephardt

31. “You know, when you’re in public life, everything you do is out there. But I am proud to stand on my record.”

— Dick Gephardt

32. “I think it’s time we had a president who carried the same life experiences into the White House as most ordinary Americans.”

— Dick Gephardt