There never was a democracy yet where the people didn't vote themselves into oblivion.
— Mitt Romney
I have never believed in my own ability to succeed at everything. I recognize I'm a human being like everybody else, and I make mistakes and fall short time and again.
I think it's one of the challenges of modern politics, which is, how do you communicate who the candidate is, and what they really believe, in the short time period you have? And for me, the best opportunity was the debates, and I think I was in real trouble before the debates, and I think the debates helped me a lot.
I'm not running again. I will say this: It was a great experience. I loved it.
Keep America strong. Strong in our values, strong in our economy, and strong in our military might. We hope to never have to use our military strength, but the world counts on a strong America to keep the worst actors from doing the worst things.
Our relationship with Egypt is very, very important. And I would want them to remain an ally. I don't want to see that official status change.
If you want to get wages up in America for middle income Americans, there's only one way I know how to do that in real terms... by having more businesses want to hire more people.
A person like Donald Trump, who has said what he's said about Muslims, Mexicans, women, George Bush, John McCain - a person like that should not be the nominee of our party or be the president, and I will campaign for an alternative to Donald Trump until that avenue is no longer open.
I would love to be president. I just concluded I was not the best person to carry forward the Republican torch.
I love cars; I like the idea of manufacturing something, having a product, a hard product to sell and promote, but as time went on, I recognized that car companies are so bureaucratic and so ossified that it would take forever to work your way up. And so I went into consulting.
Think of Donald Trump's personal qualities, the bullying, the greed, the showing off, the misogyny, the absurd third-grade theatrics. We have long referred to him as 'The Donald.' He is the only person in America to whom we have added an article before his name. It wasn't because he had attributes we admired.
Donald Trump has shown an extraordinary ability to show an understanding how our economy works, to create jobs for the American people.
The people who can save this party are Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, or John Kasich.
The only way to win the White House, in my view, is to become a nominee of either the Republican or the Democrat Party, and simply running to be a spoiler would not give the American people, I think, the chance to express their own views about Mr. Trump or about Secretary Clinton.
Trickle-down racism, trickle-down bigotry, trickle-down misogyny, all these things are extraordinarily dangerous to the heart and character of America.
We're going to have to rely on the world of Islam, major Islamic nations, to take the lead in helping promote a very different view of Islam - peace and understanding, as opposed to the radicalization going on. The Saudis and UAE and Qatar and others are going to have to take a leading role in changing hearts and minds in the world of Islam.
I think I had a superb campaign team. And I know it's always expected that if you lose, people point to the campaign team and say, 'Gee, they didn't do their job well.' If you win, they're all brilliant. And the team, in my view, did a superb job.
Millennials, minorities, women - until we can connect with those populations, we're going to have some difficulty electorally.
I believe that people of faith by and large have a great interest in the institution of family and that a family is a great place to learn leadership skills. I'm sure I benefited by having a mom and mad, both of whom were actively involved in the community and in various enterprises.
I think the trend to move towards caucuses and conventions, whether to nominate senators, governors or presidential nominees, I think the move towards caucuses and conventions is a very bad one, and that our party should reward those states that spend the time and money to have primaries.
The weakness that our campaign and that I had is we weren't effective in taking my message primarily to minority voters.
The biggest source of getting the country to a balanced budget is not by raising taxes or by cutting spending. It's by encouraging the growth of the economy.
Look, rich people and business people do well whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge.
The real people who suffer when business is leaving or not successful are the people in the middle class.
People in politics always say they're spending time with their family, but in my case, it's a big family. We got 23 grandkids, so I get to spend a lotta time with them, and it's extraordinarily enjoyable.
I think there's a character one has if you're a chief executive officer. Movies would suggest you're a bad person - if you're wealthy, if you've done well, oh, you must be bad. And frankly, winning the lottery doesn't change who you are; you're the same person inside. And I'm the same person I was as an 18-year-old who fell in love with Ann.
As a little boy, I wanted to be a policeman. And then as I got older, and I saw my dad in the car business, an automobile executive.
I must admit I found it astonishing to watch the candidates below Donald Trump beat up each other and never lay a glove on the front-runner. I mean, when I was running, everybody went after the front-runner and pointed out my weaknesses and foibles, and that's part of the normal primary process.
That makes no sense for someone to say if they were drafted by their country, that they'd say no.
There are a lot of folks who endorsed me that I would not want to see as president.
If Bill Weld were at the top of the ticket, it would be very easy for me to vote for Bill Weld for president.
Presidents have an impact on the nature of our nation.
I'm very much engaged in the political battles, but I'm doing it as a supporter of Republicans out of conservatism rather than an active candidate.
There's no question I'm going to do everything within the normal political bounds to make sure we don't nominate Donald Trump. I think he would be terribly unfit for office.
To win the nomination, you speak to people who vote in Republican primaries. And they tend not to be millennials or minorities... When I win the nomination and show up at a black church, they say, 'Where have you been Mr. Romney?'
I'm not sure people would think of me in this light, but frankly, what I enjoyed most about Bain & Company, the consulting firm, was the analytical process of solving tough problems.
I went and campaigned for Ken Cuccinelli and did a fund-raiser for Ken Cuccinelli. He's not from my faction of the Republican Party, but you know what? When the nominee is chosen, we have got to come together, or we will never lead.
My guess is that my mom and dad are very actively involved in the affairs of the next life, and they don't spend too much time looking back. My dad used to say he always looks forward; he never looks back.
Iran with a nuclear weapon or with fissile material that can be given to Hezbollah or Hamas or others has the potential of not just destabilizing the Middle East. But it could be brought here.
The reason I'm an American is for all the people in this country and recognizing that if business is thriving and growing, it will create more jobs, raise wages of our people, allow us to care for our seniors, get a better education for our kids, and allow us to have the kind of military that can defend American interests around the world.
The voters of the country decide who they want to support, and the delegates are elected to also make a determination of who would be in the best interest of the party and the country to be our nominee.
I'm afraid you're gonna have to see more American military involvement in order to keep ISIS from spreading even further.
My dad was phenomenal. Born in Mexico, lived poor, didn't graduate from college, and becomes head of a car company and then governor of a state. I can't imagine I would have ever thought about running for office had I not seen my dad do it.
Donald Trump represents a threat both to the party and to the country. I believe he makes the world far more dangerous, I believe he puts America's economy in jeopardy. And his temperament is totally unsuited for the presidency.
Donald Trump just happens to be one of those who endorsed me I do not want to see as president of the United States.
There's no question I'm going to do everything within the normal political bounds to make sure we don't nominate Donald Trump.
I wish everybody in the Republican Party had rejected Mr. Trump and chosen someone else.
I don't want to see a president of the United States saying things which change the character of the generations of Americans that are following.
Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.
I will support the Republican nominee. I don't think that's going to be Donald Trump. My party has historically nominated someone who's a mainstream conservative.
