John McCain Quotes

There's a whole generation that's retiring. It is unconscionable that the average salary of a lawyer is $79,000 a year and the average salary of a teacher is $39,000 a year.

When you have airplanes with precision weapons, striking hospitals in Aleppo and slaughtering innocent men, women and children, you're committing a war crime. So we need more sanctions against Russia. We should not relax them.

God may have mercy, but we won't.

That's give [Donald Trump] so much attention. And it's so funny. There actually have conflicting opinions on women in combat, in the military. So they have all the issues that stake. I'm more concerned with the VA than anything else.

I think we need to address greenhouse gas emissions. But I try to get involved in issues where I see a legislative result... So I just leave the issue alone because I don't see a way through it, and there are certain fundamentals, for example nuke power, that people on the left will never agree with me on. So why should I waste my time when I know the people on the left are going to reject nuclear power?

We have to love our freedom, not just for the private opportunities it provides, but for the goodness it makes possible.

I think the American people should know there's already strong influences toward another deployment of American troops in an open-ended commitment.

I actually think if the American people understood what was going on instead of just being told tidbits by this administration, they would actually be a lot more supportive of the boots on the ground.

The problem is that most members of Congress don’t pay attention to what’s going on.

Thanks to General Petraeus, our leadership and the sacrifice of brave young Americans. To deny that their sacrifice didn't make possible the success of the surge in Iraq, I think does a great disservice...the progress has been immense.

Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don't tell their children that someday, they can grow up and be president of the United States.

A man I admire and respect - Congressman John Lewis, an American hero, made allegations that Sarah Palin and I were somehow associated with the worst chapter in American history, segregation, deaths of children in church bombings, George Wallace. That, to me, was so hurtful.

I campaigned in 2012 all over this country for months: 'Repeal and replace Obamacare.' That was not the mandate of the voters. If they wanted to repeal Obamacare, the 2012 election would have been probably significantly different.

[Vladimir] Putin supporting Bashar al-Assad, helping with the Syrian refugee crisis and, I think for any republican, he [Donald Trump] has got to stop saying this, because I was with him. I was with him and he said that, it was like, I'm out. I'm out. It's too crazy.

Because the people of New Hampshire take their responsibilities as citizens of the Republic seriously, they keep it interesting for candidates who, believe it or not, can get a little tired of the mannered, predictable, and unimaginative qualities that typically afflict modern political campaigns.

I think that Joe Biden is qualified in many respects. But I do point out that he's been wrong on many foreign policy and national security issues, which is supposed to be his strength.

I would vote for a Muslim if he or she was the best candidate able to lead the country and defend our political values.

While I support a more comprehensive bill and hope a more extensive package will eventually past the Senate, I also am a realist and know that we must not let the perfect bill be the enemy of real reform.

I am confident, with the leadership and the backing of the American people, President Obama will turn this country around.

What I don't know is what the unexpected might be.

Round up and deport two million aliens who committed crimes.

I strongly support the Second Amendment and I believe the Second Amendment ought to be preserved - which means no gun control.

[Several candidates talked of problems with the federal Medicare system, particularly concerns about whether it would cover prescription drug costs in the future.] We're asking senior citizens to make a choice between their health and their income, ... Medicare is probably the most difficult challenge we face in the next century, because it has a lot to do with other things besides money.

Subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence, because under torture a detainee will tell his interrogator anything to make the pain stop. Second, mistreatment of our prisoners endangers U.S. troops who might be captured by the enemy – if not in this war, then in the next. And third, prisoner abuses exact on us a terrible toll in the war of ideas, because inevitably these abuses become public.

Even in this room full of proud Manhattan Democrats. I can't shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me ... I'm delighted to see you here tonight, Hillary.

Democrats proposing failure in Iraq by withdrawing.

Hillary [Clinton] saying we're never going to put boots on the ground in Iraq, we never going to put boots on the ground in Syria petrified me, simply because, why - what if this continues despite out of control.

We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity for action despite our fears.

I have said from the beginning that Pat Buchanan left the Republican Party the day he questioned America's involvement in defeating Nazi Germany.

The Iranians have a lousy government, so therefore their economy is lousy, even though they have significant oil revenues. So I am convinced that together, we can, with the French, with the British, with the Germans and other countries, democracies around the world, we can affect Iranian behavior. But have no doubt, but have no doubt that the Iranians continue on the path to the acquisition of a nuclear weapon. And it is a threat not only in this region but around the world.

I have said for a long time that I thought the president would be best served if the attorney general resigned so I think it's the right thing to do.

When a major airline goes on a route that a new entrant has gone into, reduces fares, increases capacity, and then when the new entrant goes off, they leave the route, that's not competition.

Giving peace a chance only gives Saddam Hussein more time to prepare for war on his terms, at a time of his choosing, in pursuit of ambitions that will only grow as his power to achieve them grows.

But I also want to change the dynamics of this debate, which has kept us gridlocked into positions which caused people to shoot at abortion clinics and other Americans to view it as the only issue in American politics, ... There are areas we can agree on. ... We need to work together to eliminate abortion.

There is no doubt in my mind that Rudy Giuliani in the Senate will be a leader for the people of New York but also for the people of Arizona and the people all over this country.

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal.

That's Joe Biden right there - unbowed, unbroken and unable to stop talking.

I've seen enough killing in my life. I know how precious human life is and I don't need a lecture from you.

Let's move forward to try to address the most egregious and outrageous corrupting aspect of campaigns in America today and that is the incredible inundation of soft money and its pernicious effects.

Conservatives came to office to reduce the size of government and enlarge the sphere of free and private initiative. But lately we have increased government in order to stay in office. And, soon, if we don't remember why we were elected we will have lost our office along with our principles, and leave a mountain of debt that our children's grandchildren will suffer from long after we have departed this earth. Because, my friends, hypocrisy is the most obvious of sins, and the people will punish it.

Did you hear the one about the woman who is attacked on the street by a gorilla, beaten senseless, raped repeatedly, and left to die? When she finally regains consciousness and tries to speak, her doctor leans over to hear her sigh contently and to feebly ask, 'Where is that marvelous ape?'

I don't know a politician who enjoys fundraising. The system is such that the American people have lost faith.

What evidence do we have that states are incapable of further exercising an authority they have exercised successfully for over 200 years?

For decades we have been living lives of abundance, with little regard for our natural resources or global health. But we are now facing hard choices in our energy policy. Future generations - my children and grandchildren, along with yours - will have to live with the decisions we make today. And so it is time for us to make some tough and - hopefully - smart choices regarding our energy use and production before it is too late.

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.

There's two ways of working in Washington, ... One is to go along and get along. The other is to stand up for what you believe in.

It is because I owe America more than she has ever owed me that I am a candidate for president to the United States.

It's a matter of fact that Senator Obama has spent more money on negative ads than any political campaign in history.