Top 500 William J. Clinton Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “There are times when only America can make the difference between war and peace, between freedom and repression, between life and death. We cannot save all the world’s children, but we can save many of them.”

— William J. Clinton

302. “We are here to celebrate the completion of the first survey of the entire human genome. Without a doubt, this is the most important, most wondrous map ever produced by human kind.”

— William J. Clinton

303. “Americans – not just starting thirty years ago but going back to the beginning, when we were rebelling against King George – we’ve always been of two minds about the government, which is why the framers wrote the Constitution the way they did.”

— William J. Clinton

304. “Since I don’t have access to the White House pastry chef anymore, it’s done wonders for my figure.”

— William J. Clinton

305. “Let us never forget the greatest untapped market for American enterprise is right here in America, in the inner cities, in the rural areas.”

— William J. Clinton

306. “I’m just trying to suppress my natural impulses and get back to work.”

— William J. Clinton

307. “The first thing I had to start with was, you know, we don’t have a war. We don’t have a depression, we don’t have a Cold War.”

— William J. Clinton

308. “I’m Bill Clinton and I think you deserve a change. That’s why I’ve offered a plan to get the economy moving again, starting with a middle-class tax cut...”

— William J. Clinton

309. “I am trying to be honest with you and it hurts me. Now...”

— William J. Clinton

310. “I want to make it very clear that this middle-class tax cut, in my view, is central to any attempt we’re going to make to have a short-term economic strategy and a long-term fairness strategy, which is part of getting this country going again.”

— William J. Clinton

311. “If President Reagan could be an actor and become president, maybe I could become an actor. I’ve got a good pension. I can work for cheap.”

— William J. Clinton

312. “We should, all of us, be filled with gratitude and humility for our present progress and prosperity. We should be filled with awe and joy at what lies over the horizon. And we should be filled with absolute determination to make the most of it.”

— William J. Clinton

313. “I do think that the role of the Internet, and the way it’s bringing everything into the home, has made a parent’s job much more difficult. And it’s harder to know what to do and how to do it. It’s much, much harder.”

— William J. Clinton

314. “If you believe in the values of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, if you’re willing to work hard and play by the rules, you are part of our family. And we’re proud to be with you.”

— William J. Clinton

315. “Terrorists are as big a threat to our future, perhaps bigger, than organized crime.”

— William J. Clinton

316. “One of the things that all kids are taught by their parents is this old “sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never hurt me.””

— William J. Clinton

317. “The simple fact is that we must not-and we will not-surrender our borders to those who wish to exploit our history of compassion and justice.”

— William J. Clinton

318. “Now, people ask me all the time how we got four surplus budgets in a row. What new ideas did we bring to Washington? I always give a one-word answer: Arithmetic.”

— William J. Clinton

319. “The most important question of the 21st century is not what or how much, it is ‘How?’ How do you propose to turn your good ideas into positive changes in other people’s lives? You must be the ‘how generation.’”

— William J. Clinton

320. “We should make it a crime even to attempt to pollute. Our children should grow up next to parks, not poison.”

— William J. Clinton

321. “I am fascinated by this partnership between Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett. It’s magic and I love it.”

— William J. Clinton

322. “We simply have to transition from an economy based almost exclusively on oil and coal and natural gas to one that’s far more diversified, that uses solar energy, and wind energy, and the power of the tides, and bio-mass energy, and eventually, develops hydrogen.”

— William J. Clinton

323. “Citizenship in the 21st century requires more than paying your taxes and voting and occasionally running for office. That even if you’re never in political office, you have political responsibilities. You can make your society stronger and better.”

— William J. Clinton

324. “I don’t know in my long life that I ever worked with anybody that has quite the combination of policy knowledge and concern, political skills, of a personal touch with people, and a sense of innate fairness that inspires confidence.”

— William J. Clinton

325. “All of us have to do a better job of teaching young people not to let themselves be defined by the words other people use against them.”

— William J. Clinton

326. “It appears that some school officials, teachers, and parents have assumed that religious expression of any type is either inappropriate or forbidden altogether in public schools; however, nothing in the First Amendment converts our public schools into religion-free zones.”

— William J. Clinton

327. “Rarely have Americans lived through so much change, in so many ways, in so short a time. Quietly, but with gathering force, the ground has shifted beneath our feet as we have moved into an Information Age, a global economy, a truly new world.”

— William J. Clinton

328. “When you’re president, the Democrats got to feel good when they walk in the door if you’re a Republican; if you’re a Democrat, the Republican has to feel like you’re listening. And you should be listening.”

— William J. Clinton

329. “The Reagan-Bush years have exalted private gain over public obligation, special interests over the common good, wealth and fame over work and family. The 1980s ushered in a Gilded Age of greed and selfishness, of irresponsibility and excess, and of neglect.”

— William J. Clinton

330. “My only enemy is right-wing religious fundamentalism.”

— William J. Clinton

331. “Because primarily of the power of the Internet, people of modest means can band together and amass vast sums of money that can change the world for some public good if they all agree.”

— William J. Clinton

332. “When I started out in public life there used to be a saying we’d hear from time to time, that every man who runs for public office will claim that he was born in a log cabin he built with his own hands. Well, my mother knew better. And she made sure I did too.”

— William J. Clinton

333. “When we put aside partisanship, embrace the best ideas regardless of where they come from and work for principled compromise, we can move America not left or right, but forward.”

— William J. Clinton

334. “You can’t blame the administration and the Republicans for taking us back to deficits, for spending the Social Security surplus and assaulting the environment. That’s what they promised to do in the last election.”

— William J. Clinton

335. “The light may be fading on the 20th century, but the sun is still rising on America.”

— William J. Clinton

336. “We don’t need a constitutional amendment for kids to pray.”

— William J. Clinton

337. “It was Mario Cuomo’s great gift and our good fortune that he was both a sterling orator and a passionate public servant. His life was a blessing.”

— William J. Clinton

338. “We have the most religious freedom of any country in the world, including the freedom not to believe.”

— William J. Clinton

339. “One of the main reasons America should re-elect President Obama is that he is still committed to cooperation. He appointed Republican Secretaries of Defense, the Army and Transportation. He appointed a Vice President who ran against him in 2008.”

— William J. Clinton

340. “It’s heartbreaking to see so many people trapped in a web of enforced idleness, deep debt, and gnawing self-doubt.”

— William J. Clinton

341. “By the end of the first month of the 1995 session, each senator will have made more money than any person who works 40 hours a week at minimum wage for the entire year.”

— William J. Clinton

342. “You need to know that a member of Congress who refuses to allow the minimum wage to come up for a vote made more money during last year’s one-month government shutdown than a minimum wage worker makes in an entire year.”

— William J. Clinton

343. “I am grateful to President George W. Bush for PEPFAR, which is saving the lives of millions of people in poor countries and to both Presidents Bush for the work we’ve done together after the South Asia tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Haitian earthquake.”

— William J. Clinton

344. “I don’t mind the debates, they’re good for America, but we shouldn’t be out there attacking each other all the time.”

— William J. Clinton

345. “I believe in religious liberty. I believe in freedom of speech. I believe in working hard and playing by the rules. I’m showing up for work tomorrow.”

— William J. Clinton

346. “I think it’s crazy for us to play games with our children’s future. We know what’s happening to the climate, we have a highly predictable set of consequences if we continue to pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.”

— William J. Clinton

347. “I will tell you this: I will not raise taxes on the middle-class to pay for these programs.”

— William J. Clinton

348. “Cooperation will save the future. And America should lead it. Every time humanity has been in danger of extinguishing itself, our consciousness and our conscience have led us to come together. That’s the big issue of the 21st century.”

— William J. Clinton

349. “Our land of new promise will be a nation that meets its obligations, a nation that balances its budget, but never loses the balance of its values.”

— William J. Clinton

350. “I don’t think the Republicans can damage my character.”

— William J. Clinton