In the view of some people, you can only believe in civil rights if you work as a civil rights lawyer. I just don't buy that.
— Deval Patrick
My grandma forbid us from describing ourselves as poor. She said, 'we're broke.' Because broke is temporary.
My most vivid memory of my father centers on the day he left. It was warm, and my mother was especially short with Rhonda and me that afternoon, which I attributed to the heat. I was oblivious to the mounting hostilities in our basement apartment.
I very much believe in values-based leadership and that the values that I believe in and try to govern by are transcendent values.
I think that hope, that ability to envision, to imagine a better way, and then to apply yourself to it, is the way to climb out of a hole, is the way to build a better life, is the way to build a better community and a better country.
This is a horrific day in Boston. My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured.
Let's go tell everyone we meet that, when the American dream is at stake, you want Barack Obama in charge.
Mitt Romney talks a lot about all the things he's fixed. I can tell you that Massachusetts wasn't one of them. He's a fine fellow and a great salesman, but as governor he was more interested in having the job than doing it.
Anybody who knows me knows that I'm no attack dog.
I do identify with St. Patrick, not just in name. He drove the snakes out of Ireland. I intend to drive the snakes out of the State House.
I've fixed hard problems of all kinds, civil rights and business problems. It's the stuff I like to do, and I'm good at it, as a matter of fact... and I never left my conscience at the door.
I view the experiences that I have had - both tough ones and the pleasant ones - as gifts. They've been full of lessons. And I've learned to be open to those lessons.
I'd like to have another opportunity to serve. I believe in service. I enjoy it. I also like coming and going, you know, because I think that my private-sector life has contributed to how I think about public-sector challenges and what I do in the public sector.
A great teacher who is full of excitement and love for her students can make all the difference in their lives.
I went to big, broken, under-resourced public schools, but we had a real sense of community, because those were days in the '50s and the '60s when every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block.
People aren't going to go bankrupt anymore if they have a serious illness, which was a serious issue here in the country before the Affordable Care Act. And, in fact, the expense of expanding health care for those who need the subsidy is picked up by the federal government for most of the early years.
We're Americans. We shape our own future. Let's start by standing up for President Barack Obama.
I view the experiences that I have had - both the tough ones and the pleasant ones - as gifts.
We have drained common sense out of our politics. The more we focus on tactics and games, the more good people check out and give up.
For too long, Democrats have been telling people what they want to hear. I'm going to tell you what I believe.
I have never taken a job or done a job where I felt I needed to leave my conscience at the door. One of the great things about not being in politics as a career is that I can do this job without thinking about my career. I can think about what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish and what we're trying to leave.
The summer before my third year of law school, I worked at a law firm in Washington, D.C. I turned 25 that July, and on my birthday, my father happened to be playing in a local jazz club called Pigfoot and invited me to join him. I hadn't spent a birthday with him since I was 3, but I agreed.
People read inevitability as entitlement, and the American people want their candidates to sweat for the job. They want them to actually make a case for the job.
I remember how my dad was so into herbal solutions and health food well before that stuff became popular.
I grew up on the south side of Chicago, most of that time on welfare. My mother and sister and I used to live with my grandparents and various cousins. We shared a two-bedroom tenement, and the three of us slept in one of those bedrooms and had a set of bunk beds.
I have never taken a job or done a job where I felt I needed to leave my conscience at the door. One of the the great things about not being in politics as a career is that I can do this job without thinking about my career. I can think about what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish and what we're trying to leave.
We believe that in times like these we should turn to each other, not on each other. We believe that government has a role to play, not in solving every problem in everybody's life but in helping people help themselves to the American dream. That's what Democrats believe.
I don't want to be a senator.
If you are ever going to move beyond where you stand at that moment you have to conjure a picture in your head of where you want to go.
We need a government that is what we are at our best. Smart, efficient, pragmatic and compassionate.
