Welcome to the world of Bill Clinton quotes! Bill Clinton was the 42nd President of the United States and served two terms from 1993 to 2001. During his time in office, he made a number of memorable quotes that have become famous over the years. Here, you will find a collection of some of his most inspiring and thought-provoking words. From his powerful speeches to his humorous one-liners, these quotes will provide you with insight into the mind of one of the world’s most influential leaders.
Bill Clinton Common Quotes
⚫“A man is more than the sum of all the things he can do.”
⚫“All America loses when any person is denied or forced out of a job because of sexual orientation.
⚫“Being gay, the last time I thought about it, seemed to have nothing to do with the ability to read a balance book, fix a broken bone, or change a spark plug.”
⚫“Being President is like being the groundskeeper in a cemetery: there are a lot of people under you, but none of them are listening.”
⚫“He didn’t say a word or do an action that did not have a purpose”
⚫“I did not have sexual relations with that woman”
⚫“I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can’t be judged by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgements can make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only response to pain.”
⚫“If one candidate is appealing to your fears, and the other one’s appealing to your hopes, you’d better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope!”
⚫“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.”
“If you want to live like a Republican, vote like a Democrat.”
⚫“In other words, our constitution was designed by people who were idealistic but not ideological. There’s a big difference. You can have a philosophy that tends to be liberal or conservative but still be open to evidence, experience, and argument. That enables people with honest differences to find practical, principled compromise. On the other hand, fervent insistence on an ideology makes evidence, experience, and arguments irrelevant: If you possess the absolute truth, those who disagree are by definition wrong, and evidence of success or failure is irrelevant. There is nothing to learn from the experience of other countries. Respectful arguments are a waste of time. Compromise is weakness. And if your policies fail, you don’t abandon them; instead, you double down, asserting that they would have worked if only they had been carried to their logical extreme.”
⚫“Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all.”
⚫“Our democracy cannot survive its current downward drift into tribalism, extremism, and seething resentment. Today it’s “us versus them” in America. Politics is little more than blood sport. As a result, our willingness to believe the worst about everyone outside our own bubble is growing, and our ability to solve problems and seize opportunities is shrinking. We have to do better. We have honest differences. We need vigorous debates. Healthy skepticism is good. It saves us from being too naive or too cynical. But it is impossible to preserve democracy when the well of trust runs completely dry.”
⚫“Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
⚫“People around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”
⚫“That’s the permanent mission our Founding Fathers left us—moving toward the “more perfect union.”
⚫“The media knows what sells—conflict and division. It’s also quick and easy. All too often anger works better than answers; resentment better than reason; emotion trumps evidence. A sanctimonious, sneering one-liner, no matter how bogus, is seen as straight talk, while a calm, well-argued response is seen as canned and phony.”
⚫“The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it. Between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past. Between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists.”
⚫“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
⚫“They should be impressed by the power of our example, not the example of our power.”
⚫“We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.”
⚫“We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.”
⚫“We live in a completely interdependent world, which simply means we can not escape each other. How we respond to AIDS depends, in part, on whether we understand this interdependence. It is not someone else’s problem. This is everybody’s problem.”
⚫“When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale.”
⚫“When our memories outweigh our dreams, it is then that we become old.”
⚫“You can put wings on a pig, but that doesn’t make it an eagle.”
⚫People are more impressed by the power of our example rather than the example of our power…”
Famous Bill Clinton Quotes To Ponder Over
⚫“A man is more than the sum of all the things he can do.”
⚫“Being President is like being the groundskeeper in a cemetery: there are a lot of people under you, but none of them are listening.”
⚫“Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.”
⚫“He didn’t say a word or do an action that did not have a purpose.”
⚫“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
⚫“If one candidate is appealing to your fears, and the other one’s appealing to your hopes, you’d better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope!”
“If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.”
⚫“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person.”
⚫“If you want to live like a Republican, vote like a Democrat.”
⚫“Obama doesn’t know how to be President. He doesn’t know how the world works. He’s incompetent. He’s an amateur!”
⚫“Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own ren”ewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.
⚫“People are more impressed by the power of our example rather than the example of our power…”
⚫“People around the world have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”
⚫“Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it’s the time when they most need to think.”
⚫“That depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.”
⚫“There is nothing wrong in America that can’t be fixed with what is right in America.”
⚫“They should be impressed by the power of our example, not the example of our power.”
⚫“This is a practical country. we have ideals, we have philosophies. But, the problem with any ideology is that it gives the answer before you look at the evidence.”
⚫“We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.”
⚫“We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.”
⚫“We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps, but we have not done so; instead, we have drifted. And that drifting has eroded our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence.”
⚫“When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale.”
⚫“When our memories outweigh our dreams, it is then that we become old.”
⚫“You can put wings on a pig, but that doesn’t make it an eagle.”
Inspirational Bill Clinton Quotes on Life
⚫“Nobody’s right all the time, and a broken clock is right twice a day. We’re compelled to spend our fleeting lives between those two extremes, knowing we’re never going to be right all the time and hoping we’re right more than twice a day.”
“Healthy skepticism is good. It saves us from being too naive or too cynical.”
⚫“I did not run for this job just to warm the seat. I desperately want to make a difference.”
⚫“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person.”
⚫“If you want to have a good life you have to have some constructive outlet for your feelings.”
⚫“It depends upon what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”
⚫“It’s heartbreaking to see so many people trapped in a web of enforced idleness, deep debt, and gnawing self-doubt.”
⚫“It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.”
⚫“Let us all take more responsibility not only for ourselves and our families but for our communities and our country.”
⚫“Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all.”
⚫“Promising too much can be as cruel as caring too little.”
⚫“Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.”
⚫“Surrounding yourself with sycophants and bootlickers is the surest route to failure.”
⚫“The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.”
⚫“We must teach our children to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons.”
⚫“When times are tough, constant conflict may be good politics but in the real world, cooperation works better.”
⚫“Work is about more than making a living, as vital as that is. It’s fundamental to human dignity, to our sense of self-worth as useful, independent, free people.”
⚫“You have to make a conscious decision to change for your own well-being, and that of your family and your country.”
Bill Clinton Quotes on Education and Voting
⚫“A man you can bait with a tweet is not a man we can trust with nuclear weapons.”
⚫“Freedom is difficult, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep the people in.”
⚫“I may not have been the greatest president, but I’ve had the most fun eight years.”
⚫“If one candidate is appealing to your fears, and the other one’s appealing to your hopes, you’d better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope!”
⚫“If you want to live like a Republican, vote like a Democrat.”
“In the new economy, information, education and motivation are everything.”
⚫“In today’s knowledge-based economy, what you earn depends on what you learn.”
⚫“Let me say this as clearly as I can No matter how sharp a grievance or how deep a hurt, there is no justification for killing innocents.”
⚫“May those generations whose faces we cannot yet see, whose names we may never know, say of us here that we led our beloved land into a new century with the American dream alive.”
⚫“Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal.”
⚫“People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.”
⚫“That’s the permanent mission our Founding Fathers left us—moving toward the “more perfect union.”
⚫“The media knows what sells—conflict and division. It’s also quick and easy. All too often anger works better than answers; resentment better than reason; emotion trumps evidence.”
⚫“The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it. Between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past.”
⚫“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
⚫“There were a lot of times when we were alone, but I never really thought we were.”
⚫“We’ve got to get America back in the future business.”
Wise Bill Clinton quotes
“A man is more than the sum of all the things he can do.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“If you live long enough, you’ll make mistakes. But if you learn from them, you’ll be a better person. It’s how you handle adversity, not how it affects you. The main thing is never quit, never quit, never quit.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Sometimes when people are under stress, they hate to think, and it’s the time when they most need to think.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“The road to tyranny, we must never forget, begins with the destruction of the truth.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“We all do better when we work together. Our differences do matter, but our common humanity matters more.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“We cannot build our own future without helping others to build theirs.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“We know we have to face hard truths and take strong steps, but we have not done so; instead, we have drifted. And that drifting has eroded our resources, fractured our economy, and shaken our confidence.’” – Bill Clinton
⚫“When our memories outweigh our dreams, it is then that we become old.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Work is about more than making a living, as vital as that is. It’s fundamental to human dignity, to our sense of self-worth as useful, independent, free people.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“You have to make a conscious decision to change for your own well-being, and that of your family and your country.” – Bill Clinton
Political Bill Clinton quotes
⚫“At the end of the Constitutional Convention, a citizen asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of government our founders had given us. He replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.” That’s a job no president can do alone. It’s up to all of us to keep it. And to make the most of it.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“I want American Dream growth – lots of new businesses, well-paying jobs, and American leadership in new industries, like clean energy and biotechnology.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“If one candidate is appealing to your fears, and the other one’s appealing to your hopes, you’d better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope!” – Bill Clinton
⚫“May God bless the United States of America and all who call it home.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Obama doesn’t know how to be President. He doesn’t know how the world works. He’s incompetent. He’s an amateur!” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Our democracy cannot survive its current downward drift into tribalism, extremism, and seething resentment. Today it’s “us versus them” in America. Politics is little more than blood sport. As a result, our willingness to believe the worst about everyone outside our own bubble is growing, and our ability to solve problems and seize opportunities is shrinking. We have to do better. We have honest differences. We need vigorous debates. Healthy skepticism is good. It saves us from being too naive or too cynical. But it is impossible to preserve democracy when the well of trust runs completely dry.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured with what is right in America.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“When I was president, I worked hard to give you more peace and shared prosperity, to give you an America where nobody is invisible or counted out.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“You know, everybody makes mistakes when they are president.” – Bill Clinton
Thought provoking Bill Clinton Quotes
“Character is a journey, not a destination.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“For too long, politicians told most of us what’s wrong with America is the rest of us. Them. Them the minorities. Them the liberals. Them, them, them. But there is no them; there’s only us One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty, and justice, for all.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“I learned a lot from the stories my uncle, aunts and grandparents told me: that no one is perfect but most people are good; that people can’t be judged by their worst or weakest moments; that harsh judgments can make hypocrites of us all; that a lot of life is just showing up and hanging on; that laughter is often the best, and sometimes the only response to pain. Perhaps most importantly, I learned that everyone has a story – of dreams and nightmares, hope and heartache, love and loss, courage and fear, sacrifice, and selfishness.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“I still believe in a place called hope, a place called America.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“If you want to have a good life you have to have some constructive outlet for your feelings.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“The greatest lesson, especially for young people, is that, while bad things do happen to good people,
⚫“we still have the freedom and responsibility to decide how to respond to justice.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“The world has always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Yesterday is yesterday. If we try to recapture it, we will only lose tomorrow.” – Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton quotes from his book “The President Is Missing”
⚫“All too often, those who rail against “them” prevail over earnest pleas to remember what “we” can be and do together. Our brains have worked this way for a long time. Maybe they always will. But we have to keep trying. That’s the permanent mission our Founding Fathers left us—moving toward the “more perfect union.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“And you hear me, you unelected flunky. I only take orders from the president. Until I hear from him, I’ll be.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Gerald Ford once said that an impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives says it is.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Her close-cropped hair is now completely gray. Her eyes are probing but kind.” – Bill ClintonI’m out of rabbits and hats to pull them out of.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“If this guy ever had an unselfish thought, as my mama would say, it would die of loneliness.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“Nobody does anything for nothing.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“The American dream works when our common humanity matters more than our interesting differences and when together they create endless possibilities. That’s an America worth fighting—even dying—for.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“The first two times you heard me speak, I sounded like a fool. I made about as much sense as a top hat on a mule. I wasn’t sure a third attempt would do me any better, So I decided that I’d put my thoughts down in a letter.” – Bill Clinton
⚫“The media knows what sells—conflict and division. It’s also quick and easy. All too often anger works better than answers; resentment better than reason; emotion trumps evidence. A sanctimonious, sneering one-liner, no matter how bogus, is seen as straight talk, while a calm, well-argued response is seen as canned and phony.” – Bill Clinton
Funny Quotes by President Bill Clinton
⚫“Being president is like running a cemetery: you’ve got a lot of people under you and nobody’s listening.”
⚫“I asked him to do it because he was the only person that I could trust to read all 150,000 pages in the Code of Federal Regulations. — on asking Vice President Al Gore to tackle federal regulatory reform.”
⚫“I don’t know whether it’s the finest public housing in America or the crown jewel of the American penal system. — on the White House”
“I may not have been the greatest president, but I’ve had the most fun eight years.”
⚫“I’m someone who had a deep emotional attachment to ‘Starsky and Hutch.”
⚫“If President Reagan could be an actor and become president, maybe I could become an actor. I’ve got a good pension. I can work for cheap. — at a Hollywood fundraiser”
⚫“It depends on how you define alone… — in his grand jury testimony”
⚫“It depends on what the meaning of the words ‘is’ is. — during his 1998 grand jury testimony on the Monica Lewinsky affair.”
⚫“It was a real sort of Southern deal. I had AstroTurf in the back. You don’t want to know why, but I did. — reminiscing about a pickup truck he once owned”
⚫“It wasn’t my finest hour. It wasn’t even my finest hour and a half. — after giving an endless nominating speech for Michael Dukakis at the 1988 Democratic convention”
⚫“Last year, the vice president launched a new effort to help make communities more liberal. — during his 2000 State of the Union Speech. He meant to say “more livable,” and then made the same slip-up in a subsequent sentence, drawing uproarious laughter from Republicans”
⚫“Look, half the time when I see the evening news, I wouldn’t be for me, either. — in 1995, on a pre-campaign swing through Montana and Colorado.”
⚫“Politics gives guys so much power that they tend to behave badly around women. And I hope I never get into that. — to a woman friend, while he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford.”
⚫“Sometimes I feel like the fire hydrant looking at a pack of dogs. For six years I had declined to tell those kinds of jokes, because I have been told it is not presidential. But I feel kind of outdoorsy today. — at a party honoring the 150th anniversary of the Interior Department.”
⚫“The economy has produced 6.1 million jobs since I became president, and if Michael Jordan comes back to the Bulls, it will be 6,100,001 jobs. — in 1995”
⚫“There are always going to be people who want to be president, and some days I’d like to give it to them. — in 1993”
⚫“There were a lot of times when we were alone, but I never really thought we were. –Bill Clinton, in his grand jury testimony.”
⚫“Usually briefs. — during a 1994 MTV town meeting whether he wore boxer shorts or briefs.”
⚫“Well, I don’t have much job security. — in 1992, on why he still plays the saxophone.”
⚫“What’s a man got to do to get in the top fifty? — reacting to a survey of journalists that ranked the Monica Lewinsky scandal as the 53rd most significant story of the century.”
⚫“When I was in England, I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale and never tried it again.”
⚫“You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That’s a good-looking mummy — looking at “Juanita,” a newly discovered Incan mummy on display at the National Geographic MuseumYou’d think he was running for First Lady. — on George H. W. Bush’s criticism of Hillary Clinton.”
Verdict
Bill Clinton’s quotes have been a source of inspiration and knowledge for many people throughout the years. He has shared his wisdom on a variety of topics, from politics to life lessons. His words have the power to bring about change and help us to become better people. We can all learn something from his quotes, and use them to make positive changes in our own lives.