Top 180 John F. Kerry Quotes (2026 Update)
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151. “In order to have the best intelligence in the world to know who the terrorists are and where they are and what they’re plotting, you’ve got to have the best cooperation you’ve ever had in the world.”

— John F. Kerry

152. “I have confidence in my campaign. I have assembled a great team that is going to beat George W. Bush, and any rumors to the contrary are completely erroneous.”

— John F. Kerry

153. “If Saddam Hussein is unwilling to bend to the international community’s already existing order, then he will have invited enforcement, even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act.”

— John F. Kerry

154. “Our military is overextended. Nine out of 10 active-duty Army divisions are either in Iraq, going to Iraq or have come back from Iraq. One way or the other, they’re wrapped up in it.”

— John F. Kerry

155. “If America is at war, I won’t speak a word without measuring how it’ll sound to the guys doing the fighting when they’re listening to their radios in the desert.”

— John F. Kerry

156. “The Ukrainian people should not be coerced. Make no mistake: the US stands together with the Ukrainians aspiring for democracy.”

— John F. Kerry

157. “Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, others, knew how to lead. They knew how to ask the American people for the right things.”

— John F. Kerry

158. “We do not need more division. We certainly do not need something as complex and emotional as Vietnam reduced to simple campaign rhetoric.”

— John F. Kerry

159. “This is deeply disturbing. Congress provided loans to help businesses hurt by the Sept. 11 attacks, not to be used as an accounting gimmick to cover up this administration’s failure to provide for small businesses.”

— John F. Kerry

160. “Our cause in the war on terror isn’t helped when we have army officers like Lieutenant General William Boykin speaking in evangelical churches and claiming this as some sort of battle for the Christian religion. That’s wrong. That’s un-American.”

— John F. Kerry

161. “I am not a spokesperson for the church and the church is not a spokesperson for the United States of America. I’m running for president and I’m running to uphold the Constitution, which has a strict separation of church and state.”

— John F. Kerry

162. “The measurement in this race is not where you come from, it is “what do you fight for.””

— John F. Kerry

163. “I’ve been having problems with the right wing lately.”

— John F. Kerry

164. “It’s hard to believe that in the greatest democracy in the world, we need legislation to prevent the government from writing and paying for the news.”

— John F. Kerry

165. “I will not stop in our efforts to hunt down and kill the terrorists.”

— John F. Kerry

166. “Iraq may not be the war on terror itself, but it is critical to the outcome of the war on terror, and therefore any advance in Iraq is an advance forward in that...”

— John F. Kerry

167. “As President, I will not be the last to know what is going on in my command.”

— John F. Kerry

168. “I’m glad the President finally found an economic development program. I’m just sad that it’s only in Baghdad.”

— John F. Kerry

169. “Jesus did not help just the sick who could afford to pay for it.”

— John F. Kerry

170. “President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn’t be upset if I could earn the right to be the second.”

— John F. Kerry

171. “America deserves a real discussion about real policy.”

— John F. Kerry

172. “I am a veteran, I fought in a war. I’ve been a prosecutor. I’ve sent people to jail for the rest of their life.”

— John F. Kerry

173. “There is a much cheaper way, less complicated way to bring Iraq and Saddam Hussein to its knees: it is simply to send the Bush economic team over there and let them run the country.”

— John F. Kerry

174. “I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force – if necessary – to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security.”

— John F. Kerry

175. “Glossed over the disastrous war and its multibillion-dollar price tag and implied again that our presence in Iraq is somehow improving the situation in that chaotic and turbulent country. The Congress must stand up against Bush’s plan to escalate the war.”

— John F. Kerry

176. “And here and now we must insist again that fidelity, honor, and love of country demand untrammeled debate and open dissent. At no time is that truer than in the midst of a war rooted in deceit and justified by continuing deception.”

— John F. Kerry

177. “I believe America is safest and strongest when we are leading the world and we are leading strong alliances.”

— John F. Kerry

178. “It’s very hard to get other countries to give up their weapons when you’re busy developing a new one.”

— John F. Kerry

179. “So my judgment is that Syria will move; Syria will change, as it embraces a legitimate relationship with the United States and the West and economic opportunity that comes with it and the participation that comes with it.”

— John F. Kerry

180. “I’m Going To Make Available To Every American The Same Health Care Plan That Senators And Congressmen Give Themselves.”

— John F. Kerry

181. “The race for the White House should be about leadership, and leadership requires that one help heal the wounds of Vietnam, not reopen them.”

— John F. Kerry

182. “There is no bigger judgment for a president of the United States than how you take a nation to war.”

— John F. Kerry

183. “I refuse to stand by while our democracy is trampled by politicians more concerned about amassing power than helping the people who sent them to Washington in the first place.”

— John F. Kerry