Quotes by Dick Cheney

It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.

Principle is OK up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose.

I wake up every morning literally with a smile on my face, grateful for another day I never thought I'd see.

I did my 40 years in Washington, 40-plus, and it's time to pause and reflect and think about what I've seen and done.

I have not seen Al Gore's movie.

The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.

You've got a job to do, and because you've got a job to do, you've got to focus on that, so you don't have time for personal considerations.

I've been criticized because I've had the temerity to speak out and done a couple of interviews since I left office. I don't find anything surprising about that.

The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people. I mean, these are terrorists for the most part.

I do not believe the President requires any additional authorization from the Congress before committing US forces to achieve our objectives in the Gulf.

I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.

I support the President's plan to amend the Constitution, banning same-sex marriage.

Another argument holds that opposing Saddam Hussein would cause even greater troubles in that part of the world, and interfere with the larger war against terror. I believe the opposite is true.

In response to the question Do you think that you underestimated the insurgency's strength? I think so. I guess if I look back on it now, I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence that we've encountered.

Saddam Hussein is aggressively seeking nuclear and biological weapons and the United States may well become the target.

The bottom line is that we've had enormous successes (in Iraq) and we will continue to have enormous successes.

When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry.

There's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government.

Two days ahead of schedule, the world witnessed the arrival of a free and sovereign Iraq.

I think you can not be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

As Vice President one of the things I spend time on is the continuity of government; that's the main reason I'm here is a back up for the President if anything happens to him.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my faults.

In our own country, we take democratic values seriously -- and so we always have a vigorous debate on the issues. That's part of the greatness of America, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

People tell me that Senator Edwards got picked for his good looks, his sex appeal, and his great hair. I say to them: How do you think I got the job?

I was a big supporter of waterboarding. I was a big supporter of the enhanced

interrogation techniques.

I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. But I also believe that gay and lesbians and gay and lesbian couples, those who have been in long-term relationships, deserve to be treated respectfully, they deserve to have benefits.

I got sick, hospitalized, had no insurance. And the money I had saved for our honeymoon went to pay medical bills. So I had been in the position of not having insurance when I needed health care.

Obviously, it's a big problem how do we provide quality care to the maximum number of people. And it's not an easy problem to solve.

That intelligence capability is enormously important to the United States, to our conduct of foreign policy, to defense matters, to economic matters. And I am a strong supporter of it.

I want to avoid personal attacks, ... I promise not to make fun of your singing.

Everyone knows that you're not really a real man unless you own a gun.

To bring the worst of the worst terrorists inside the United States would be cause for great danger and regret in the years to come. It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness, and would make the American people less safe.

I wake up every morning literally with a smile on my face, grateful for another day I never thought I would see.

If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two or three years... we would not have had the kind of job growth we've had.

I am a deficit hawk.

The Federalist Society has made important contributions to the nation's understanding of our constitutional heritage.

We have great information. They're going to welcome us. It'll be like the American Army going through the streets of Paris. They're sitting there ready to form a new government. The people will be so happy with their freedoms that we'll probably back ourselves out of there within a month or two.

I learned early on that if you don't want your memos to get you in trouble someday, just don't write any.

Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States.

Sarah Palin is an attractive candidate, but based on her background, she only was governor for what, two years. I don't think she passed that test.

I had other priorities in the sixties than military service.

Whoever controls the flow of Persian Gulf oil has a stranglehold not only on our economy but also on the other countries of the world as well.

I think President Obama is going to be a one-term president.

It's clearly established in terms of training, provision of bomb-making experts, training of people with respect to chemical and biological warfare capabilities, that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Iraq for training and so forth.

You know, in this business, you don't have any control over what the press says and how they portray things. And that's their prerogative. But I think anybody who looks at it objectively has trouble making the case that somehow this is a bad economy.

I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time... The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.

I'm often asked why I left politics and went to Halliburton and I explain that I reached the point where I was mean-spirited, short-tempered and intolerant of those who disagreed with me and they said 'Hell, you'd make a great CEO', so I went to Texas and joined the private sector.

We've had experiences where the president's been shot, but never had a situation where the vice president shot somebody.

We do know, with absolute certainty, that Saddam Hussein is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon.

Well, we've got a major effort under way to try to educate everybody, to let them know we have a zero tolerance policy where sexual assault is involved.

I think it's fair to say you can't predict a straight line to victory. You know, there'll be good days and bad days along the way.

You wake up every morning with a smile on your face because you've got a new day you never expected to have. And there's a sense of wonderment. Nothing short of magical.

We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power.

Unfortunately, we don't have the option of marriage in our country. We could go to Britain or Spain or Argentina and do something symbolic, but that's not what I want. I want to have the rights of anybody else in my home country. I don't want to be a second-class citizen.

In Iraq, a ruthless dictator cultivated weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. He gave support to terrorists, had an established relationship with al Qaeda, and his regime is no more.

We know he's been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.

His regime has had high-level contacts with al Qaeda going back a decade and has provided training to al Qaeda terrorists.

We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.

Had the decision belonged to Senator Kerry, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today in Iraq. In fact, Saddam Hussein would almost certainly still be in control of Kuwait.

In his years in Washington, Senator Kerry has been one vote of a hundred in the United States Senate -- and fortunately on matters of national security, he was very often in the minority.

We haven't really had the time yet to pore through all those records in Baghdad. We'll find ample evidence confirming the link, that is the connection if you will between al Qaida and the Iraqi intelligence services. They have worked together on a number of occasions.

I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session.

I can think of a lot of words to describe Senator Kerry's position on Iraq; consistent is not one of them.

Cheney, Cheney, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide.

I think I was able to survive five heart attacks because I never postponed going to the hospital when something didn't feel right.

And the fact of the matter is there were thousands of people that went through those training camps in Afghanistan. We know they are seeking deadlier weapons -- chemical, biological and nuclear weapons if they can get it.

I can think of a lot of words to describe Senator Kerry's position on Iraq; 'consistent' is not one of them.

Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual -- America sees two John Kerrys.

There comes a time when deceit and defiance must be seen for what they are. At that point, a gathering danger must be directly confronted. At that point, we must show that beyond our resolutions is actual resolve.

We urge all democratic nations and the United Nations to answer the Iraqi Governing Council's call for support for the people of Iraq in making the transition to democracy.

The Iraqi forces are conducting the Mother of all Retreats.

The Senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security.

I'd spent 25 years in government when I left the Defense Department back in '93, decided I'd go spend the rest of my career in the private sector, and then the president tapped me to come be his running mate. And it's been a remarkable experience. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

You cannot be driven by the polls. The polls change all the time; they're easily manipulated by whoever wants to ask those poll questions; they go up; they go down.

My own belief is that the way we grow the economy, create jobs, create wealth is in the private sector. The government doesn't do that.

No matter what kind of problem I've run into, there's always been a solution for it. Now, obviously, there will be a point where there aren't any more solutions, and I'll have used up my time. We all do.

It used to be you needed to have a very large sophisticated state before you could even have a nuclear weapon... Now the technology is widespread enough. It doesn't take very many people to be able to cobble together a devastating attack, and all it takes is one.

I'm not apologetic with respect to the policies of the Bush administration. I think we basically got it right.

As I think about the future, I'm back where most people live their lives. Which is, death is not imminent, and that's different.

I -- obviously, I'm not a big fan of President Obama. I think he's been one of our weakest presidents. I just fundamentally disagree with him philosophically.

Westerners know the difference between a talker and the real deal. If Rick Perry wasn't right to be governor of Texas, why should he be president?

I think we need a very, very serious effort, primarily through tax policy to provide incentives and encouragement for people to save and invest and expand their businesses and to create more jobs. The kind of thing we did in the early Reagan years, 30 years ago. I think that's essential.

I believe that we were not as effective in the second term dealing with this issue of nuclear none proliferation as we had been during the first term when we stripped Libya and Iraq and A.Q. Khan and their capacity to proliferate nuclear technology.

I believe very deeply in the proposition that what we did in Iraq was the right thing to do. It was hard to do. It took a long time. There were significant costs involved.

I think there's no question but what the tail end of the Bush administration, Bush-Cheney administration, that we took steps specifically geared to try and free up the financial sector.

There's every reason to believe there will be further attacks attempted against the United States. For us to spend so much time patting ourselves on the back because we got bin Laden that we miss the next attack would be a terrible tragedy.

I think Barack Obama is a one-term President.

You got to have people at the top who respond to and are selected by presidents.

The Columbia is lost, but the dreams that inspired its crew remain with us.

A little tough talk in the midst of a campaign or as part of a presidential debate cannot obscure a record of 30 years of being on the wrong side of defense issues.

Except for the occasional heart attack, I never felt better.

I do find that the mainstream media oftentimes is what I would consider off base or has a bias.

I had a reputation of being somewhat moderate, partly, I think, because I wasn't a 'bomb thrower' like some of my conservative colleagues, and partly because I got along with people all across the political spectrum.

I think that freedom means freedom for everyone. As many of you know, one of my daughters is gay, and it is something we have lived with for a long time in our family. I think people ought to be free to enter into any kind of union they wish. Any kind of arrangement they wish.

We need to have a pro-growth policy put in place that offers people hope and offers the opportunity for businesses to expand and for them to have confidence in what the world is going to look like for the next two or three or four years with respect to economic policy.

I mean, it's not just one day you get up, bang, and you got Osama bin Laden. It's the kind of thing where an awful lot of people over a long period of time -- thousands have worked this case and these issues and followed on the leads and captured bad guys and interrogated them and so-forth.

I've worked for four presidents and watched two others up close, and I know that there's no such thing as a routine day in the Oval Office.

We will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

I'm absolutely convinced that the threat we face now, the idea of a terrorist in the middle of one of our cities with a nuclear weapon, is very real and that we have to use extraordinary measures to deal with it.

Direct threats require decisive action.

The Federal Reserve, the Treasury, all the regulator agencies -- if there's a problem of the financial mechanism in society, the only one to fix it is government. They've got a legitimate role.

I think the record speaks for itself. These are two individuals who have been for the war when the headlines were good and against it when their poll ratings were bad.

If we have reason to believe someone is preparing an attack against the U.S., has developed that capability, harbours those aspirations, then I think the U.S. is justified in dealing with that, if necessary, by military force.

The good Lord didn't see fit to put oil and gas only where there are democratically elected regimes friendly to the United States. Occasionally we have to operate in places where, all considered, one would not normally choose to go. But we go where the business is.

I was convinced that eventually I would die of heart disease, that we'd run out of time and out of treatment, the technology wouldn't keep ahead of my disease. And now all of the sudden, when you get the new heart, your life opens up before you again.

The plan was criticized by some retired military officers embedded in TV studios. But with every advance by our coalition forces, the wisdom of that plan becomes more apparent.

I think we need to significantly reduce the regulatory burden on the private sector. The Obama administration is doing the opposite. They're loading on more and more regulation on the private respect to how the economy functions.

The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected. Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I'm not at all sure that that's what the Obama administration believes.

Reagan proved deficits don't matter.

No, I've always been impressed with the tremendous resilience of the American economy. I think over the years, over the decades, it's demonstrated this tremendous ability to take severe body blows, if you will, and bounce back.

I don't pay a lot of attention, frankly, to what Barack Obama says.

In terms of asking questions, I plead guilty. I ask a hell of a lot of questions. That's my job.

In his years in Washington, Senator Kerry has been one vote of a hundred in the United States Senate -- and fortunately on matters of national security he was very often in the minority.

When George Bush asked me to sign on, it obviously wasn't because he was worried about carrying Wyoming. We got 70 percent of the vote in Wyoming, although those three electoral votes turned out to be pretty important last time around.

You can't fall back on the private sector and say, 'You take care of the nation's banking system.' That's a fundamental function of the government, the Federal Reserve, the Treasury and the FDIC, etc. All of those agencies have a major role to play there.

Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy.

The only thing left that shows I was a heart patient is I have a scar down the middle of my chest where they went in three times to do open heart surgery. I have a brand new heart inside, and all the mechanical and electronic gear and so forth is all gone.

We have to make America the best place in the world to do business.

Had the decision belonged to Senator Kerry, Saddam hussein would still be in power today in Iraq. In fact, Saddam Hussein would almost certainly still be in control of Kuwait.

From kindergarten to graduation, I went to public schools, and I know that they are a key to being sure that every child has a chance to succeed and to rise in the world.

If you're going to go increase taxes on small businesses, you're going to slow down the extent to which we're able to reduce unemployment. So I think it's a serious mistake; the wrong time to raise taxes.

Like many Americans, I've always been intrigued by Bill Clinton. I obviously didn't always agree with him -- enjoyed running against his legacy in 2000, when Al Gore was his designated successor, but I don't have anything negative I would say about Bill Clinton.

I've been extraordinarily fortunate that I've been able to go live a very active, stressful life. And I don't believe that my heart disease changed me for the worst.

We must be prepared to face our responsibilities and be willing to use force if necessary.