Charles Schumer Quotes

In a brave new world, a post-September 11 world, anyone is going to make certain mistakes. The mistakes that have been made on homeland security, on protecting our Nation from another terrorist attack, are mistakes of omission. We are simply not doing enough.

I`m totally opposed to vouchers. I will fight them tooth and nail.

I believe the war on terror is the vital discussion of this decade and of our generation, probably. To win the war on terror, you need a good offense and a good defense. On defense, I regret to say, basically, this administration has not come close to doing what is necessary.

But these days there are a lot of younger people who would like to go into teaching but don`t because the economic opportunities are sometimes elsewhere.

We need to make sure middle-class people are able to pay the bills. We need to make sure that poor people don`t starve. Those are values, too.

We tend to talk, Democrats, as a party, in legislative terms.

I`m strongly for a patient Bill of Rights. Decisions ought to be made by doctors, not accountants.

Giving up even an ounce of precious freedom is a very serious thing to do.

So I want my kids to go to public schools because I think it`s a better education overall.

You do have to change things as warfare changes.

Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, whether you are a liberal or a conservative, we know that neither this President nor prior Presidents of both parties did everything right or we would not have had a 9/11.

I went to the public schools myself. And they were great for me.

But I don`t think the Democratic Party is at eye level with the middle class.

Do not let arguments of expediency persuade you. That is the slow road to oblivion. That is the tortured path to undoing step by step, bit by bit, as the river creates a canyon, the way of life that we love.

America is a place where we all come together. It is a place of consensus.

Well, I think it`s too early to call Fallujah a failure.

If we say the Geneva Convention is obsolete, then what do others who have our soldiers say?

In today`s competitive economy, to stand still is to die.

Democrats don`t relate to middle-class people.

Well, the tough thing for them is that the Republican primary is pretty far over to the right, just as the Democratic primary is further over to the left than the average voter in each party.

Ideological warriors whether from the Left or the Right are bad news for the bench. They tend to make law, not interpret law. And that`s not what any of us should want from our judges.

When one has success, the answer is not to undo that success. It is to continue what has been done.

I respect people who feel things passionately. I do. But when someone is a judge, that is not what they should bring to the bench. It is not really passion, except in rare instances, that serves the bench well. It is, rather, an ability to understand the law and follow it.

You can set up whatever negotiations or structure you want, but until the Palestinians are willing to accept the fact, as the majority of Israelis do, that there should be two states between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, we won`t have peace.

And I think a Barack Obama, a Bill Clinton, people who had success in these elections are Democrats who can talk in terms of values.

I`d like to see the health care professionals making decisions, not some bureaucrat in Indianapolis working for an insurance company.

I want to attract the best people into teaching.

I think teaching should be an exalted profession, not a picked-on profession.

Inaction is perhaps the greatest mistake of all.

Soft money will find its way and seep into the political system and corrode it, unless we plug every hole.

Arafat was a barrier to peace.

I made education the highest priority of my campaign - actually education and jobs - and the reason is a simple one: I think the future of America depends on it.

A devastating commentary on the war in Iraq is that we have been unable to spend money on infrastructure.

If we are going to stay a great power and I hope and pray we will we need the truth. We need to know what is going right and we need to know what is going wrong. There is no greater time than now.

The problem is that we are involved, not in an head-on head war, which was the first three weeks, but rather in a guerrilla war.

It is essential that all Americans take the time to honor and remember those individuals who gave their lives in defense of our liberty.

As long as the Palestinians send terrorists onto school buses and to nightclubs to blow up people, Israel has no choice but to build the fence.

Anyone who thinks they have a monopoly on truth, and there is only one way to see the world, always gets us into trouble.