Barry Morris Goldwater was an American politician, statesman, businessman, United States Air Force officer, and author who was a five-term Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party nominee for president of the United States in 1964. Goldwater is the politician most often credited with having sparked the resurgence of the American conservative political movement in the 1960s. These Barry Goldwater quotes will motivate you.
Best Barry Goldwater Quotes
- “Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I am frankly sick and tired of the political preachers telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution, or that have failed in their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is “needed” before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“The Republicans have a positive talent for self-destruction.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “The effect of Welfarism on freedom will be felt later on – after its beneficiaries have become its victims, after dependence on government has turned into bondage and it is too late to unlock the jail.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “One way we exercise political freedom is to vote for the candidate of our choice. Another way is to use our money to try to persuade other voters to make a similar choice – that is, to contribute to our candidate’s campaign. If either of these freedoms is violated, the consequences are very grave not only for the individual voter and contributor, but for the society whose free political processes depend on a wide distribution of political power.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“Government should stay the hell out of people’s business.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northern Ireland or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state?” ~ Barry Goldwater Quotes
- “History has to judge every man who served. I don’t know how they’re going to treat me. I may be the worst S.O.B. that ever came down the pike. But I won’t lose any sleep over it. I just like to be remembered as an honest person who tried.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Nixon was the most dishonest individual I have ever met in my life. He lied to his wife, his family, his friends, his colleagues in the Congress, lifetime members of his own political party, the American people and the world.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“To disagree, one doesn’t have to be disagreeable.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Once upon a time our traditional goal in war and can anyone doubt that we are at war? – was victory. Once upon a time we were proud of our strength, our military power. Now we seem ashamed of it. Once upon a time the rest of the world looked to us for leadership. Now they look to us for a quick handout and a fence-straddling international posture.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “The time has come to recognize the United Nations for the anti-American, anti-freedom organization that it has become. The time has come for us to cut off all financial help, withdraw as a member, and ask the United Nations to find headquarters location outside the United States that is” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “The big thing is to make this country – quit discriminating against people just because they’re gay. You don’t have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay. They’re American citizens.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“The constitution is an instrument, above all, for LIMITING the functions of government.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I’ve always said I have nothing against a woman doing anything a man can do as long as she gets home in time to cook dinner.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “…this bill will require the creation of a Federal police force of mammoth proportions. It also bids fair to result in the development of an ‘informer’ psychology in great areas of our national life-neighbors spying on neighbors, workers spying on workers, business spying on businessmen-were those who would harass their fellow citizens for selfish and narrow purposes will have ample inducement to do so. These, the Federal police force an ‘informer’ psychology, are the hallmarks of the police state and landmarks in the destruction of a free society.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“The fellow has absolutely no principles.”Money and gall” is all he has.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Sex and politics are a lot alike. You don’t have to be good at them to enjoy them.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “We Americans understand freedom; we have earned it, we have lived for it, and we have died for it. This nation and its people are freedom’s models in a searching world. We can be freedom’s missionaries in a doubting world. The genius of the American system is that through freedom we have created extraordinary results from plain old ordinary people.” ~ Barry Goldwater Quotes
- “None of us here in Washington knows all or even half of the answers … If you love your country, don’t depend on handouts from Washington for your information. If you cherish your freedom, don’t leave it all up to big government.” ~ Barry Goldwater.
-
“I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws but to repeal them.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “At this sunset hour, the canyon walls are indescribably beautiful and I fear the magic of photography can never record what I see now. The tall spires near the canyon’s top and the walls of the canyon up there look as if God had reached out and swiped a brush of golden paint across them, gilding these rocks in the bright glow of the setting sun.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “On religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this Supreme Being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God’s name on one’s behalf should be used sparingly.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“Unlimited campaign spending eats at the heart of the democratic process.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I’d rather see a woman elected…They understand they can’t spend more money than the old man brings home.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “The great decisions of government cannot be dictated by the concerns of religious factions. We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs of state separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and we mustn’t stop now. To retreat from that separation would violate the principles of conservatism and the values upon which the framers built this democratic republic.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Throughout history, government has proved to be the chief instrument for thwarting man’s liberty.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes- and who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible?” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“I thought of something my old coach at Staunton had often said: ‘We win some, we lose some, and some get rained out; but we always suit up.'” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Conservatism, we are told, is out-of-date. This charge is preposterous and we ought to boldly say so. The laws of God, and of nature, have no dateline. These principles are derived from the nature of man, and from the truths that God has revealed about His creation. To suggest that the Conservative philosophy is out of date is akin to saying that the Golden Rule, or the Ten Commandments or Aristotle‘s Politics are out of date.” ~ Barry Goldwater Quotes
- “[G]overnment can, instead of extending freedom, restrict freedom. And note … that the ‘can’ quickly becomes ‘will’ the moment the holders of government power are left to their own devices. This is because of the corrupting influence of power, the natural tendency of men who possess some power to take unto themselves more power. The tendency leads eventually to the acquisition of all power – whether in the hands of one or many makes little difference to the freedom of those left on the outside.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “”I feel certain that Conservatism is through unless Conservatives can demonstrate and communicate the difference between being concerned with [the unemployed, the sick without medical care, human welfare, etc.] and believing that the federal government is the proper agent for their solution.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “We shall return to proven ways – not because they are old, but because they are true.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Throughout history civilian populations and political rulers have talked of peace. We have never been free of war. The soldier, whose profession is war, understands that peace must be enforced by superior military might. The certainty of defeat is the only effective deterrent we can use to maintain peace. Furthermore, we can be strong without being aggressive.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“The Conservative knows that to regard man as part of an undifferentiated mass is to consign him to ultimate slavery.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “There’s no greater service to this country than the defense of its freedom.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “On Hillary Clinton, who was an ardent Goldwater supporter in 1964: ‘If he’d let his wife run business, I think he’d be better off. … I just like the way she acts. I’ve never met her, but I sent her a bag of chili, and she invited me to come to the White House some night and said she’d cook chili for me. Someday, maybe.'” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Extremism in defense of Liberty is no vice and moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” ~ Barry Goldwater, Barry Goldwater on extemism
- “Today neither of our two parties maintains a meaningful commitment to the principle of States’ Rights. The 10th Amendment is not a ‘general assumption’ but a rule of law. States rights mean that states have a right to act or not to act, as they see fit, in areas reserved to them.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“We have enough trouble with women without giving them M16 rifles.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Social and cultural change, however desirable, should not be effected by the engines of national power. Let us, through persuasion and education, seek to improve institutions we deem defective. But let us, in doing so, respect the orderly processes of the law. Any other course enthrones tyrants and dooms freedom.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents’ “interests,” I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “To insist on strength … is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “It is safe to say that the U.S. Congress is now run by paid staffers, not by people elected to do the job.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“Perseverance. . .that’s been the story of my family.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “When white and black and brown and every other color decide they’re going to live together as Christians, then and only then are we going to see an end to these troubles.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I think some highly secret government UFO investigations are going on that we don’t know about–and probably never will unless the Air Force discloses them.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “And here we encounter the seeds of government disaster and collapse – the kind that wrecked ancient Rome and every other civilization that allowed a sociopolitical monster called the welfare state to exist.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I have characterized Nixon as a loner, a cold man with great self-confidence and a one-track mind centered on the advancement of Richard Nixon.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Politics [is] the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “It is impossible to maintain freedom and order and justice without religious and moral sanctions.” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“A man from the west will fight over three things: water, women and gold, and usually in that order.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I say further that for this great legislative body to ignore the Constitution and the fundamental concepts of our governmental system is to act in a manner which could ultimately destroy the freedom of all American citizens, including the freedoms of the very persons whose feelings and whose liberties are the major subject of this legislation.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “Whether in families or in politics, a good observation: “One can disagree without being disagreeable.”” ~ Barry Goldwater
-
“Forced integration is just as wrong as forced segregation.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “My mother took us to services at the Episcopal church. Yet she always said that God was not just inside the four walls of a house of worship, but everywhere – in the rising sun over Camelback Mountain in Phoenix, a splash of water along the nearby Salt or Verde rivers, or clouds driving over the Estrella Mountains, south of downtown. I’ve always thought of God in those terms.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “The president, who finds so much to complain about in other areas of the world, apparently saw nothing wrong in recognizing a Communist regime that has killed more people in its short history of control over the teeming millions of that great country than any other collection of dictators or tyrants in the history of the world.” ~ Barry Goldwater
- “I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle.” ~ Barry Goldwater
