Top 70 Lindsey Graham Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”

— Lindsey Graham

2. “The sooner we get started with alternative energy sources and recognize that fossil fuels makes us less secure as a nation, and more dangerous as a planet, the better off we’ll be.”

— Lindsey Graham

3. “The world we live in takes a multifaceted approach. To the American taxpayer: We need to be investing in improving people’s lives before the terrorists try to take over.”

— Lindsey Graham

4. “The intelligence community gets hurt through sequestration.”

— Lindsey Graham

5. “I think the worst thing in the world is to have the courts decide who to target in the war on terrorism. And courts are not military commanders.”

— Lindsey Graham

6. “If the Egyptian people can create a democracy in the heart of the Arab world, it will be a more significant contribution to civilization than the great pyramids.”

— Lindsey Graham

7. “The worst nightmare in the world is a radical Islamic regime with a weapon of mass destruction.”

— Lindsey Graham

8. “I dare say there may be some men and women in the Armed Forces who are so decent that they would say: Give the Iraqi people money, we do not want to be paid back. That is the strength of our country.”

— Lindsey Graham

9. “I intend to make America strong again. I’m going to be the champion of the middle class, where I came from. If you make me your president, our best days are ahead. I’m ready to be commander-in-chief, ladies and gentlemen, on day one. I intend to win a war that we cannot afford to lose.”

— Lindsey Graham

Featured in: Strong Quotes

10. “Well, thank God for a media that will ask questions.”

— Lindsey Graham

11. “The courtroom is a quiet place, Judge Roberts, where you park your political ideology, and you call the balls and you call the strikes.”

— Lindsey Graham

12. “Philanthropy is lost. The human spirit is suppressed. Most people want a legacy; they want to give something back, a library, a hospital wing, a donation to their church. This is a form of socialism that must go.”

— Lindsey Graham

13. “I believe climate change is real, but I reject the cap and trade solution of John – of, you know, of Al Gore. He’s made a religion. It’s a problem.”

— Lindsey Graham

14. “Social Security must be preserved and strengthened. But we need to be candid about the costs and willing to make the tough choices that real reform will require.”

— Lindsey Graham

15. “I’m not going to throw my state under the bus. That’s never going to happen.”

— Lindsey Graham

16. “I am confident – very confident – that if I help solve this problem in a way that we won’t have 20 million illegal immigrants 20 years from now, not only will I get re-elected, I can look back and say I was involved in something that was important.”

— Lindsey Graham

17. “Free speech is a great idea, but were in a war.”

— Lindsey Graham

18. “There’s something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers.”

— Lindsey Graham

19. “I think I’ve done more right than wrong on foreign policy. I’ve criticized the president for being weak and indecisive. I’ve been a problem solver in Washington and I think I’ve got something to offer the party and nation.”

— Lindsey Graham

20. “The best deal that Barack Obama can get will not be the best deal to be had because he’s weak and indecisive.”

— Lindsey Graham

21. “Most people are one car wreck away from needing somebody’s help. So, I don’t take anything for granted much anymore.”

— Lindsey Graham

22. “The Lindsey Graham via foreign policy is going to beat Rand Paul’s libertarian view of foreign policy. It will beat Barack Obama’s view of foreign policy. It will beat Hillary Clinton’s view of foreign policy.”

— Lindsey Graham

23. “I’ve been a military lawyer for 33 years. A member of al Qaeda or their affiliate group can be detained under a law of war as long as their threat to our nation without a trial.”

— Lindsey Graham

24. “What’s going on in the Senate is kind of a politics of escalation. We’re getting sort of like the Mideast: pay back everybody when you’re in charge.”

— Lindsey Graham

25. “I think most Americans understand that radical Islam can’t be compromised with or appeased. And the only way we can be safe is to form partnerships over there that will protect us over here.”

— Lindsey Graham

26. “What is the environmental policy of the Republican Party? When I ask that question, I get a blank stare, if I’m president of the United States, we’re going to address climate change and CO2 emissions in a business-friendly way.”

— Lindsey Graham

27. “I think the best thing, if you can’t get an air-tight deal with every “I” dotted and every “t” crossed is let the next president have a chance to deal with the Iranians.”

— Lindsey Graham

28. “Well, the big elephant in the whole system is the baby boomer generation that marches through like a herd of elephants. And we begin to retire in 2008.”

— Lindsey Graham

29. “The worst nightmare for al Qaeda is to come into a community that feels supported and has hope.”

— Lindsey Graham

30. “Marco Rubio, I think, will be president some day. Whether 2016 is his time, time will tell. He embraced immigration reform. He seems to have backed off. I’ll let him explain why.”

— Lindsey Graham

31. “Ronald Reagan would have a hard time getting elected as a Republican today.”

— Lindsey Graham

32. “I don’t have kids, but I do understand family, and I understand how precious family is.”

— Lindsey Graham

33. “Conservatives have a different view of a lot of issues versus our friends on the other side. The election determines how that shakes out.”

— Lindsey Graham

34. “If ‘Obama-care’ becomes fully implemented in 2014, it’s going to bankrupt states.”

— Lindsey Graham

35. “Whether you’re the wedding cake baker or the gay couple or the Baptist preacher, radical Islam would kill you all if they could.”

— Lindsey Graham

36. “I think our nation’s at war with radical Islam. The primary goal of these groups is to attack our nation. Washington’s a prime target.”

— Lindsey Graham

37. “If Barack Obama cannot appreciate that our troops are winning in Iraq, he should not be their Commander in Chief.”

— Lindsey Graham

38. “I think the American people pretty well understand that radical Islam has an agenda that includes us.”

— Lindsey Graham

39. “I would love to end the nuclear ambition of the Iranians without firing a shot, but you have to know who you’re talking to and what they actually want, this is North Korea in the making.”

— Lindsey Graham

40. “I’m running because I think the world is falling apart.”

— Lindsey Graham

41. “I’m for Simpson-Bowles. It doesn’t raise taxes, it closes loopholes and takes the money we would give to a few people and put it on the debt.”

— Lindsey Graham

42. “What is the environmental platform of the Republican party? I don’t know either.”

— Lindsey Graham

43. “President Obama chose politics over leadership. ‘Hope’ and ‘Change’ have become bait-and-switch.”

— Lindsey Graham

44. “I’m for eliminating deductions and taking some of the money to buy down rates and put it on the debt. That’s not raising taxes. That’s solving a problem.”

— Lindsey Graham

45. “We have to adjust the age retirement for younger people. People of my income level are going to have to have their benefits means-tested. Democrats are going to want a simpler tax code.”

— Lindsey Graham

46. “Do not give the terrorists, the enemy combatants, the people who blow up folks at weddings, who fly airplanes into the twin towers, the ability to sue our own troops all over the country for any and everything.”

— Lindsey Graham

47. “Im the ranking Republican on the foreign aid appropriations subcommittee, so I know Tunisia well.”

— Lindsey Graham

48. “I don’t see any coronation coming my way.”

— Lindsey Graham

49. “I would love to have a good deal to end the nuclear ambitions of the Iranians, but I don’t trust the Iranians. They’ve been lying and cheating.”

— Lindsey Graham

50. “The politics of judges is getting to be red hot.”

— Lindsey Graham