Rand Paul's Quotes

In America, as opposed to the old country, success was based on merit.

Just because a majority of the Supreme Court declares something to be 'constitutional' does not make it so.

No Republican questions or disputes civil rights. I have never wavered in my support for civil rights or the civil rights act.

Of strong importance to me is the defense of minority rights, not just racial minorities, but ideological and religious minorities.

People don't like to vote against something that's so incredibly popular.

Some people say I chastise the Republican Party too much.

The main thing I say on war is that we need to obey the law and formally declare war.

The power to tax and spend is restricted by the enumerated powers.

The problem is that in our country, they make it almost impossible for politicians to win anything. In England it's easier to win a libel suit.

The Republican Party's history is rich and chock full of emancipation and black history.

The Republican platform specifically says we don't believe in bailing out private business, and yet we did.

To understand how Republicans lost the African American vote, we must first understand how we won the African American vote.

We as Republicans have taken the easy way out a lot of times.

We don't need bigger government. We need to shrink the size of government.

We should not have drug laws or a court system that disproportionately punishes the black community.

We should not have the U.S. government buying stock in American industries - the financial industry or any other industry.

What gets lost is that the Republican Party has always been the party of civil rights and voting rights.

You don't go into politics unless you want to win.

You don't win as a party unless you become a bigger party.

You know, you look at term limits, you poll term limits, 70, 80 percent of Republicans or Democrats are for it.

You need to have people within your own party that have the wherewithal to stand up to you.

I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat, there is something profoundly un-American about using the brute force of government to bully someone.

I think if you have a two-story office and you hire someone who's handicapped, it might be reasonable to let him have an office on the first floor rather than the government saying you have to have a $100,000 elevator.

My first choice had always been my father. He's still my first pick. Now that the nominating process is over, tonight, I'm happy to announce that I'm going to be supporting Governor Romney.

Washington is horribly broken. We are encountering a day of reckoning and this movement, this Tea Party movement, is a message to Washington that we're unhappy and that we want things done differently.

Because Republicans believe that the federal government is limited in its function-some have concluded that Republicans are somehow inherently insensitive to minority rights. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I think what happened during the Great Depression was that African Americans understood that Republicans championed citizenship and voting rights but they became impatient for economic emancipation.

If you force legislators to balance, at the end of the day, if it has to be balanced, then they step up and they become legislators and can find out where to cut.

In 1997, I, along with 200 other young ophthalmologists formed the National Board of Ophthalmology to protest the American Board of Ophthalmology's decision to grandfather in the older ophthalmologists and not require them to recertify.

Republicans traditionally say, 'oh, we'll cut domestic spending, but we won't touch the military.' The liberals - the ones who are good - will say, 'oh, we'll cut the military, but we won't cut domestic spending.'

The Democrats promised equalizing outcomes through unlimited federal assistance while Republicans offered something that seemed less tangible - the promise of equalizing opportunity through free markets.

The great and abiding lesson of American history, particularly the cold war, is that the engine of capitalism, the individual, is mightier than any collective.

The history of African-American repression in this country rose from government-sanctioned racism. Jim Crow laws were a product of bigoted state and local governments.

The most important thing you will do is yet to be seen. For me, I found my important thing to do when I learned to do surgery on the eye, when I learned to restore a person's vision.

The Republican promise is for policies that create economic growth. Republicans believe lower taxes, less regulation, balanced budgets, a solvent Social Security and Medicare will stimulate economic growth.

Using taxes to punish the rich, in reality, punishes everyone because we are all interconnected. High taxes and excessive regulation and massive debt are not working.

We must always embrace individual liberty and enforce the constitutional rights of all Americans-rich and poor, immigrant and native, black and white.

What I've always said is that I'm opposed to institutional racism, and I would've, had I've been alive at the time, I think, had the courage to march with Martin Luther King to overturn institutional racism, and I see no place in our society for institutional racism.

You campaigned against rich people and you got enough envy whipped up in the country and you're gonna get 'em. You're gonna stick it to those rich people. But guess what? You may not get anymore revenue. You may not get anymore economic growth. But you can say, 'I stuck it to the rich people.'

You know, when Republicans were in charge, we doubled the debt. But, now, our concern is the Democrats are in charge and they're tripling the debt. So, really, our concern is that we want smaller government.

You can't have it both ways. You can't tell me that you're taxed enough already, and that you want constitutional government and then in the next breath say, 'Bring me home some bacon.' The pig has been picked clean.

I'm not in favor of any discrimination of any form.

I have a message from the Tea Party, a message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. We've come to take our government back.

I would never belong to any club that excluded anybody for race.

I have a question, a question for the president: Do you hate all rich people, or just rich people who don't contribute to your campaign? Do you hate poor people or do you just hate poor people with jobs?

Do we fear terrorism so much that we throw out our Constitution, and are we unwilling and afraid to debate our Constitution?

I believe we should work to end all racism in American society and staunchly defend the inherent rights of every person.

A free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination, even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude people based on the color of their skin.

For most of our history, no one dared to tell Americans, 'you don't build that.'

I don't want to live in a nanny state where people are telling me where I can go and what I can do.

The Republican Party is an empty vessel unless we imbue it with values.

Do you hate poor people or do you just hate poor people with jobs?

I read all of Ayn Rand's novels when I was 17.

Let's means-test benefits - let's means-test Social Security and Medicare and make the rich pay more for these benefits.

All issues of crime are better addressed at the state level.

American inventiveness and the desire to build developed because we were guaranteed the right to own our success.

I don't plan on being bashful.

You shouldn't have one opinion when you're running and another when you're president.

I think we need to treat everybody with dignity.

Foreign aid is not something the vast majority of Americans support, but definitely not conservatives.

I don't think I'm really open to having Washington change me.

If our freedom is taken, the American dream will wither and die.

Just because a couple people on the Supreme Court declare something to be 'constitutional' does not make it so.

A Tea Party tidal wave is coming.

Both sides of the aisle - Republican and Democrat - have been unwilling and afraid to address the deficit, and someone's got to.