Barney Frank Quotes

The best humor is offered up to you by the stupidity of your opponents.

Capitalism works better from every perspective when the economic decision makers are forced to share power with those who will be affected by those decisions.

The Moral Majority supports legislators who oppose abortions but also oppose child nutrition and day care. From their perspective, life begins at conception and ends at birth.

When community action was put into federal law in the early sixties as part of the effort to combat poverty and social injustice, I supported it intellectually.

These two entities—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—are not facing any kind of financial crisis.

People are entitled to the presumption of innocence.

Most people who are activists and are concerned about issues get their information from sources which reinforce their opinions and give them the facts that they want to hear.

They appear to have become so attached to their outrage that they are even more outraged that they won't be able to be outraged anymore.

What's troubling is that the Republicans to defend Mr. DeLay are weakening the ethics process.

It is because the fight against the harshest aspects of unrestricted capitalism is therefore a political problem and not an intellectual one that community action remains so essential.

This bill is the legislative equivalent of crack. It yields a short-term high but does long-term damage to the system and it's expensive to boot.

But it is also clear that left entirely untouched by public policy, the capitalist system will produce more inequality than is socially healthy or than is necessary for maximum efficiency.

Well, many of us believe that excessive media concentration is a subject that ought to be addressed, and it is, of course, the intention of the majority party not to allow that to be discussed.

Community action is as valuable a principle on the international level as it has been domestically.

Take free speech: most of the tough cases on free speech involve very unpleasant people saying very obnoxious things.

I smoke a cigar or two a day. I did have a brownie once. It made me sleepy.

Disruption never helps your cause. ... It just looks like you're afraid to have rational discussion.

The fact that theyre a congressionally chartered group should no more incline people to give to that group than the fact that its National Pickle Month should make them eat more pickles.

Donald Trump has done more for getting people to understand the importance of public policy that respond to public needs in an affirmative way than anything we could have done on our own.

The best antidote to prejudice is reality.

A leader can't move a country that's not ready. You can't make the waves, but when you see them coming, you can help direct them.

Today, many people take for granted the notion that people whose lives are going to be very heavily affected by public policies should have a say in how they are formulated and carried out.

We don't get ourselves dry cleaned.

Bush senior used to say that we have more will than wallet. So he urged the country to attack poverty with a thousand points of light, none of which could be eaten.

NATO was a wonderful idea. It was formed in 1949. We are as far away from NATO as NATO was when it was done in time from the presidency of Grover Cleveland.

There was a degree of interventionism in American foreign policy, the notion that we must be the superpower and we have to intervene everywhere, that I think makes no sense.

Going before an audience of people who expect you to be funny is tough. Going before an audience that expect you to be boring, and then being a little funny, is much easier. I prefer easier.

I don't think Donald Trump is the right person because I very much disagree with him.

I can tell you about health care and also about the financial reform bill. The Barack Obama, the President personally and his administration officials at his direction were very much involved.

Serving in Congress is like having a second shot at high school.

The issue is not that morals be applied to public policy, it's that conservatives bring public policy to spheres of our lives where it should not enter.

Nothing in the world is as mobile as capital. It can move anywhere in the world instantaneously.

Conservatives believe that from the standpoint of the federal government, life begins at conception and ends at birth.

And unless you think there is a serious chance you're going to jail, don't listen to your lawyer.

It seems to me that politicians ought to use the same words as other people.

I will tell you, I'm a lousy cook, but I think I'm a pretty good judge of a good meal.

The rights of the people who have done terrible things are hard to defend. You have to keep pointing out, the question is the process to determine whether they've done the terrible things.

Whenever people are being intellectually dishonest in debate, it is an implicit concession they have lost the fight

In America, unlike England, unlike Israel, unlike Japan, other democracies, we have elections that have staggered terms.

We all have the right to call each other names. Rudeness is a deeply held constitutional value.

Legislators have a formal set of responsibilities to work together, but there's no hierarchy.

Ridicule is about the most powerful weapon possible.

Lawyers are very, very good at keeping you out of prison, but they will sacrifice your reputation and credibility to do so.

Martin Luther King said, and it is sadly still true, that one of the most segregated times in America is the hour of worship.

[Democrats] are trying on every front to increase the role of government.

And I think there is too much bloviating around from politicians.

Ronald Reagan believes in the free market like some people believe in unicorns.

The problem with the war in Iraq is not so much the intelligence as the stupidity.

Moderate Republicans are reverse Houdinis. They tie themselves up in knots and then tell you they can’t do anything because they’re tied up in knots.

I believe it is a good thing to get rid of Gaddafi. But does America have to do everything?