Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.
I'm not President Bush
I don't think Roger Ailes is ham-fisted.
I think that Fox News is a bit schizophrenic.
At least I don't plaster on the makeup like a trollop, you c***!
You have to listen to people that have chosen the nominee of our Republican Party. I think it would be foolish to ignore them.
I think that it's important that we understand the importance of the Hispanic vote in America.
Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely and who rely on you
Americans Never Quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We Make History. -John McCain
I don't think anybody is - no one could compare to Ronald Reagan, because he was the right man at the right time.
Our great power does not mean we can do whatever we want whenever we want, nor should we assume we have all the wisdom and knowledge necessary to succeed.
We need a free press. We must have it. It's vital.
Sometimes it's important to watch what the president does rather than what he says.
Government should take care of those in America who can't care for themselves. That's a role of government.
But we should be mindful as we argue about our differences that so much more unites than divides us. We should also note that our differences, when compared with those in many, if not most, other countries, are smaller than we sometimes imagine them to be.
Country First
![I know where a lot of them [the elite or elitists] live.
Where's that?
Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there.](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/john-mccain-27751.jpg)
I know where a lot of them [the elite or elitists] live. Where's that? Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there.
I admire the Islam. There's a lot of good principles in it.
I don't doubt the sincerity of my Democratic friends. And they should not doubt ours.
The U.S. never lost a battle against North Vietnam, but it lost the war.
Russia's leaders, rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power, have rejected democratic ideals and the obligations of a responsible power.
Frankly, I would never accept an award from Vladimir Putin because then you kind of give some credence and credibility to this butcher, this KGB agent, which is what he is.
I consider myself a Christian. I attend church. My faith has sustained me in very difficult times.
During one period while I was in solitary, I memorized the names of all 335 of the men who were then prisoners of war in North Vietnam. I can still remember them.
The problem... is that most members of Congress don't pay attention to what's going on.
My greatest fear is the Iranians acquire a nuclear weapon and give it to a terrorist organization. And there is a real threat of them doing that.
Thank God for our form of government. The media won't let there be any cover-up.
We cannot forever hide the truth about ourselves, from ourselves.
I'm not against a border wall, OK, but go to China, and you'll see a border wall there. We need technology, we need drones, we need surveillance capabilities, and we need rapid-reaction capabilities.
War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.
I have watched men suffer the anguish of imprisonment, defy appalling human cruelty... break for a moment, then recover inhuman strength to defy their enemies once more.
I believe in evolution. But I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also.
I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's.
For much of my life, the Navy was the only world I knew. It is still the world I know best and love most.
Every day, people serve their neighbors and our nation in many different ways, from helping a child learn and easing the loneliness of those without a family to defending our freedom overseas. It is in this spirit of dedication to others and to our country that I believe service should be broadly and deeply encouraged.
If you want to preserve - I'm very serious now - if you want to preserve democracy as we know it, you have to have a free and many times adversarial press. And without it, I am afraid that we would lose so much of our individual liberties over time. That's how dictators get started.
The president has promised greater border security. We can agree to that. A literal wall might not be the most effective means to that end, but we can provide the resources necessary to secure the border with smart and affordable measures.
![[One of the biggest differences between him and his rivals for the Republican nomination was]](https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/images/quotes/john-mccain-27753.jpg)
[One of the biggest differences between him and his rivals for the Republican nomination was] "every one of them wants to torture people. It's amazing.
We all know spending levels for defense and other urgent priorities have been woefully inadequate for years. But we haven't found the will to work together to adjust them.
Politics abhors a vacuum, and Asian countries will gravitate towards China if U.S. influence is perceived as declining.
For America, our interests are our values, and our values are our interests.
Whenever America sends its citizens into harm's way, it must do so with eyes wide open.
I believe we should always put our country first.
Americans and Europeans share a common goal - to build an enduring peace based on freedom.
As chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, I am confronted every day with the security concerns and threats to our own nation's safety, as well as threats to the rest of the world.
Putin's Russia is our adversary and moral opposite. It is committed to the destruction of the post-war, rule-based world order built on American leadership and the primacy of our political and economic values.
On Putin's order, corrupt apparatchiks and crony oligarchs rob Russians of their nation's wealth and resources.
For Mr. Putin, vacillation invites aggression. His world is a brutish, cynical place, where power is worshiped, weakness is despised, and all rivalries are zero-sum.
The French repulsed wave after wave of frontal attacks at Dien Bien Phu. The 1968 Tet offensive against the U.S. was a military disaster that effectively destroyed the Viet Cong. But Giap persisted and prevailed.
I'm sick and tired of only being asked about everything that Donald Trump says or does.
Public life has many more privileges than hardships.
When you're not winning, you're losing.
When Barack Obama won in 2008, in 2009 I voted for his team because I think that - that the American people wanted him to have his team. But don't think I wasn't worried about it. Really worried.
I thought I'd be president of the United States.
I tell the same stories all the time because I like them!
I believe in prayer. I pray every night.
On the issue of the gay marriage, I believe if people want to have private ceremonies, that's fine. I do not believe that gay marriages should be legal.
Our society demands that women be treated equally and that we not discriminate against them.
I understand the sensitivity of issues regarding women in the military.
We cannot have a separate group of people that are military and a separate civilian society. Otherwise, it's dangerous to democracy.
Personally, I liked Admiral Kelso very much. I believe that he served his country with distinction.
Americans want jobs. They want affordable health insurance. They want an education.
Sen. Obama comes from the old Chicago machine politics and has never taken on the special interests in his party on a major issue ever.
I've tried to say that I admire and respect Sen. Obama. He has accomplished great things, and he has motivated people, and so - and he loves his country, just as I do.
I'm proud of my record of reform, taking on my own party.
The first role of government is to help people who are in crisis or need. That's why we have government.
I'm sick and tired - and the American people are sick and tired - of the pork barrel spending.
My record shows that I have put my country first, and I follow the philosophy and traditions of Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan.
Most great leaders in history that I've studied always need to get as wide a range of opinions as possible so that they can have sufficient information to make the right decisions.
I guess my view is I believe less governance is best governance and that government should not do what the free enterprise and private enterprise and indidividual entrepreneurship and the states can do.
I've always given presidents the benefit of the doubt on their nominees.
I get along with the Democrats, but please - I'm not their hero.
Some men are much more self-sufficient than others.
I used to write books and plays in my mind, but I doubt that any of them would have been above the level of the cheapest dime novel.
I think ISIS can do terrible things.
Putin wants to restore the Russian empire. That's his ambition; he's stated it many times.
I think it's important for the president of the United States to be aware of the intelligence information that we have.
I think that Rand Paul represents a segment of the GOP, just like his father. And I think he is trying to expand that, intelligently, to make it larger.
No one can plausibly argue that ridding the world of Saddam Hussein will not significantly improve the stability of the region and the security of American interests and values.
I am frustrated and outraged by the slow nature of change at the VA.
In the real world, as lived and experienced by real people, the demand for human rights and dignity, the longing for liberty and justice and opportunity, the hatred of oppression and corruption and cruelty is reality.
I have certainly seen my share of the world as it really is and not how I wish it would be.
It is foolish to view realism and idealism as incompatible or to consider our power and wealth as encumbered by the demands of justice, morality, and conscience.
We are a country with a conscience.
I know in war good people can feel obliged for good reasons to do things they would normally object to and recoil from.
I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it.
The truth is sometimes a hard pill to swallow. It sometimes causes us difficulties at home and abroad. It is sometimes used by our enemies in attempts to hurt us. But the American people are entitled to it, nonetheless.
Barbara Boxer is the most bitterly partisan, most anti-defense senator in the United States Senate today. I know that because I've had the unpleasant experience of having to serve with her.
You cannot tell the enemy you're going to leave and expect the enemy to not - and expect to succeed. I mean, that's just a fundamental of warfare.
We know that Medicare's going broke in seven years, but we need to start over. That's what the American people want us to do.
The first pork-barrel bill that crosses my desk, I'm going to veto it and make the authors of those pork-barrel items famous all over America.
On the subject of Osama bin Laden... we will track him down. We will capture him. We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell.
We must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos; there will be genocide; and they will follow us home.
I am fully prepared to be commander in chief... I don't need on-the-job training.
But please know, whether you believe campaign contributions are speech or property, that I learned to love very dearly the right of free expression when I lived without that freedom for a while a long time ago.
Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.
I know from personal experience that the abuse of prisoners will produce more bad than good intelligence.
You raise taxes during an economic crisis time, as we did in - back in the time of Herbert Hoover, you send the country into a depression.
The core political values of our free society are so deeply embedded in our collective consciousness that only a few malcontents, lunatics generally, ever dare to threaten them.
On Putin's order, Russian security services try to destabilize NATO allies the U.S. has sworn to defend.
Countries, not just their armies, win wars.
I think it's important that the President of the United States consult as widely as possible with those who have different views so that he can - he or she - can make the most informed decisions.
