Top 500 William J. Clinton Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 9 of 10

401. “In addition I had real and serious questions about an independent counsel investigation that began with private business dealings twenty years ago.”

— William J. Clinton

402. “Nothing in our lifetimes has been more heartening than when people of the former Soviet Union and Central Europe broke the grip of communism. We have aided their progress and I am proud of it.”

— William J. Clinton

403. “There is no example on the planet of a successful economy with broadly shared prosperity and a shrinking, weak government.”

— William J. Clinton

404. “You know, I’ve always been really interested in this stuff, and I’m going to read this.”

— William J. Clinton

405. “It is time to stop personal destruction and prying into private lives.”

— William J. Clinton

406. “There’s this whole problem of trafficking, which has gotten worse in the economic downturn, which disproportionately affects young women, but also affects some young men who are sold into bondage, into basically servitude for indebted work that they can often never escape from.”

— William J. Clinton

407. “When I was president, I knew exactly what I wanted to do every day to bring America together and create a greater sense of opportunity and a larger sense of responsibility and a stronger sense of community.”

— William J. Clinton

408. “If you think the President was right to open the doors of American opportunity to young immigrants brought here as children who want to go to college or serve in the military, you should vote for Barack Obama.”

— William J. Clinton

409. “I refuse to be part of a generation that celebrates the death of communism abroad with the loss of the American dream at home.”

— William J. Clinton

410. “And I have a plan to do even better, to end welfare as we know it.”

— William J. Clinton

411. “If no one consumes these products, people will stop producing them. They will not build it if you don’t come.”

— William J. Clinton

412. “Sometimes there is a difference in what is legal and what ought to be done.”

— William J. Clinton

413. “Saddam Hussein didn’t kill 3,100 people on Sept. 11. Osama bin Laden did, and as far as we know he’s still alive.”

— William J. Clinton

414. “We’re going to build the bridge to the 21st century, we have to make our children free – free of the vise grip of guns and gangs and drugs; free to build lives of hope.”

— William J. Clinton

415. “I mean my life was a combination of fascination with other people, with politics, and with policy, and the impact of government decisions on people’s lives and the life of our nation and the life of the world.”

— William J. Clinton

416. “From New Hampshire forward, for reasons that absolutely mystified me, the press thought the most important issue in the race was the middle class tax cut. I never did meet any voter who thought that.”

— William J. Clinton

417. “What happened to us in September, 2001, is a microcosmic but painful and powerful example of the fact we live in an inter-dependent world that is not yet an integrated global community.”

— William J. Clinton

418. “I challenge every business person in America who has ever complained about the failure of the welfare system to try to hire somebody off welfare. And try hard.”

— William J. Clinton

419. “Our paradigm now seems to be: Something terrible happened to us on September 11, and that gives us the right to interpret all future events in a way that everyone else in the world must agree with us. And if they don’t, they can go straight to hell.”

— William J. Clinton

420. “I want a man who had the good sense to marry Michelle Obama.”

— William J. Clinton

421. “Most of the major mistakes I made in my life, I made when I was too tired to know what I was doing – both personally and professionally.”

— William J. Clinton

422. “In the whole history of this country, we have probably won more friends from the power of our example than from the power of our military.”

— William J. Clinton

423. “What we did with deeming rules were designed – it was designed to keep costs from coming on to the government that should be borne by families of immigrants who actually have incomes and can afford to pay.”

— William J. Clinton

424. “It simply doesn’t make any sense for us to have illegal aliens in our custody in our courts and then let them go back to living here illegally. That’s wrong and we should stop it.”

— William J. Clinton

425. “I misled people, including even my wife.”

— William J. Clinton

426. “There’s a big conservative press unabashedly and for the Democrats and even people to the left of the Democratic party, there’s almost virtually no outlets that you can compare with the vast array of conservative press that’s out there.”

— William J. Clinton

427. “Our campaign is the opposite of ‘competence.’”

— William J. Clinton

428. “People should really take care when they vote, and pay more attention to what people say they’re going to do – instead of just how they feel about how things are going.”

— William J. Clinton

429. “I think if the White House or the President want to say anything about our conversations or anything I tried to do to help our country with their support or at their request, then I think they should be the ones to do that. But I think that former presidents should do that.”

— William J. Clinton

430. “You live in the age of interdependence. Borders don’t count for much or stop much, good or bad, anymore.”

— William J. Clinton

431. “One of the things that I think we have learned is that we should all be very careful about making predictions about the future.”

— William J. Clinton

432. “Millions of people of color still experience racism daily.”

— William J. Clinton

433. “A few months ago, and again this week, bin Laden publicly vowed to publicly wage a terrorist war against America, saying, and I quote, “We do not differentiate between those dressed in military uniforms and civilians. They’re all targets.” Their mission is murder, and their history is bloody.”

— William J. Clinton

434. “People ought to be going over this, finding things they don’t like. Congress has clearly proved they can act in a hurry. If there’s something wrong with it, it can be amended. If something needs to be kicked in, it can be put in. If something needs to be taken out, it can be taken out.”

— William J. Clinton

435. “President Obama’s record on national security is a tribute to his strength, and judgment, and to his preference for inclusion and partnership over partisanship.”

— William J. Clinton

436. “First, I worry about climate change. It’s the only thing that I believe has the power to fundamentally end the march of civilization as we know it, and make a lot of the other efforts that we’re making irrelevant and impossible.”

— William J. Clinton

437. “It might suprise you to know I think I raised them too much, too.”

— William J. Clinton

438. “But the truth is, countries have to do what is best in each instance to pursue both their interest and their values.”

— William J. Clinton

439. “We simply cannot afford to give the reigns of government so someone who will double down on trickle down.”

— William J. Clinton

440. “If you come from a wealthy country with open borders, unless you seriously believe you can kill, imprison or occupy all your enemies, you have to make a world with more friends and fewer enemies – with more partners and fewer terrorists.”

— William J. Clinton

441. “We must fortify African democracy and peace by launching Radio Democracy for Africa, supporting the transition to democracy now beginning to take place in Nigeria.”

— William J. Clinton

442. “In speaking powerfully and eloquently for mercy and reconciliation to people divided by old hatreds and persecuted by abuse of power, the Holy Father was a beacon of light not just for Catholics, but for all people.”

— William J. Clinton

443. “The new energy future is decentralised, entrepreneurial and needs people like you to say ‘Give me a clean car, give me solar shingles to put on my roof – give me a clean future’”

— William J. Clinton

444. “I’m sure I spent more time in Texas than anybody else who had run for President recently.”

— William J. Clinton

445. “Over time, the more we bring China into the world, the more the world will bring freedom to China.”

— William J. Clinton

446. “Any poll is a picture of an unfinished horse race except the Election Day polls.”

— William J. Clinton

447. “I am committed to curbing the influence of money in our political system.”

— William J. Clinton

448. “The era of big government is over.”

— William J. Clinton

449. “Let me be clear: we are still a nation of immigrants, and we honor all those immigrants who are working hard to become new citizens.”

— William J. Clinton

450. “I am in support of the NRA position on gun control.”

— William J. Clinton