Top 110 Gary Johnson Quotes

I don’t want to close the door that if any of us were president of the United States that we would sit idly by and watch something like the Holocaust go down. I don’t want to close the door on the United States involving themselves and putting a stop to that. Can we spend money on that? Yeah, I think so.

All I suggest is to make K-12 like higher education. Higher education in the United States is the best in the world because these institutions compete with each other for your tuition dollar. Let’s just bring competition to public education.

Every time you pass a law, it is a little bite out of freedom.

I was your C student. I paid attention in the classes that were about how to get elected.

Would this country be better off if no one drank? Yes, it would be, but we tried that; it doesn’t work. I don’t want to tell anybody that they can’t have as many drinks as they want every single night of the week as long as they don’t get behind the wheel of a car.

I’m ready for a different America.

I believe in a strong national defense. But it’s my belief that neither Iraq nor Afghanistan poses a threat to national security, and we shouldn’t be involved in either area.

America is big enough to accommodate differences of opinion and practice on religious and social beliefs. As a nation and as a society, we must reject discrimination, forcefully and without asterisks. Most importantly, as president, I will zealously defend the Constitution of the United States and all of its amendments.

I don’t think you can climb Mount Everest with a broken leg, but I did break my leg prior to going to Mount Everest, so I was really climbing with a healing broken leg. I had the good fortune of climbing the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. That was a goal that I had.

Balance the federal budget now, not 15 years from now, not 20 years from now, but now. And throw out the entire federal tax system, replace it with a fair tax, a consumption tax, that by all measurements is just that. It’s fair.

At the base of Ron Paul support, in my opinion, are people with brains.

If there’s a clear genocide somewhere, don’t we really want to positively impact that kind of a situation? Isn’t that what we’re all about? Isn’t that what we’ve always been about?

I see the demographics increasing, and by that I mean the notion of social acceptance is growing, not decreasing; I think the notion of fiscal responsibility is growing, not decreasing. And Republicans seem to be moving further away from those two categories than closer.

I just think everything we do has an unintended consequence. We take out Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and Iraq was the check against Iran.

I have not watched Glenn Beck. I don’t watch him.

I’m a plodder, one foot in front of the other. Life is all about understanding that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And it’s your ability with how you deal with that adversity that ultimately affects your success.

I climbed Mount Everest. I don’t quit.

The current prohibition laws are forcing drug disputes to be played out with guns in our streets. We need to put a stop to this criminal drug element in our country.

I was raised a Christian. I’d like to think I have Christian values. I don’t attend church.

I support gay unions. I think the government should get out of the marriage business completely – leave marriages to the churches. And grant civil unions to gay couples, grant civil unions to a man and woman.

Regardless of my legislation, spending has to be stopped.

In New Mexico… I may have vetoed more legislation as governor of New Mexico than all the other governors in the country combined.

I am actually one of those who took President Obama at his word when he first ran – that he would get us out of ill-advised wars, that he would do something about health care costs, and that he would protect civil liberties. Like many Americans, I was disappointed.

At the end of the day, Democrats go out and appeal to 30 percent of the far left; Republicans go out and appeal to 30 percent of the far right. Hey, there’s a big middle ground here that’s not represented. I think that, Bill Weld and myself, I think the Libertarian Party really occupies that ground.

My fear is that people associate Rand Paul’s social conservatism with libertarianism, when it’s not.

It costs more money to put a person on death row than it does to lock them up for the rest of their lives because of attorney fees.

There was a big difference between Ron Paul and me when it came to the ‘no.’ His ‘no’ was philosophical. It was reasoned. It was right. My ‘no’ actually put a stop to legislation. It cut spending. Mine carried further than just no.

Every single figure on Mount Rushmore was a third party at one time or another, so third parties become major parties, and I think that the Libertarian Party may become my major party.

If Clinton is elected or if Trump is going to get elected, I think the polarization in Congress will be greater than ever. Nothing is going to get done. It is going to be so ugly, so partisan, so back-biting. Well what if you elect a couple of Libertarians?

The excitement right now is coming from the Liberty movement. And the Republicans want a piece of it.

I’m one of those who believe the bumper sticker: If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. The first people who are going to be in line to turn in their guns are law-abiding citizens. Criminals are going to be left with guns.

Marriage equality – I think that it’s a constitutionally guaranteed right. Let’s end the drug wars. Let’s balance the federal budget, and that means reforming the entitlements – Medicaid, Medicare.

My supporters are people who believe in being fiscally responsible and socially accepting. I think most people are in that category. Speaking with a broad brushstroke, those are my supporters.

Would the world be a better place if all drugs were legalized tomorrow? Absolutely. But pragmatically speaking, you’re not going to go from the criminalization of all drugs to the legalization of drugs overnight.

It’s not 2038 that Social Security is bankrupt. It’s now.

We’re on the verge of a financial collapse unless we balance the budget, and that means some really, really tough decisions.

Tonight was a great opportunity to take on the political status quo that has given us trillion dollar deficits and put millions out of work. Our objective was to inject some common sense into the conversation among Republicans at a time when business-as-usual simply won’t work.

I think that the best that government can do for you and I as individuals is to empower you and I to make decisions that only you and I should make.

I think libertarians need somebody who can articulate getting from A to Z. But you know, if G is achievable, how about it? Let’s get there!

I was opposed to the government mandating that restaurants not allow people to smoke, believing it becomes the customer’s choice whether they go in or not. But then, I thought, ‘What about the employees? Aren’t they hostage to a smoking environment, even if they don’t smoke?’

I think a great starting point for a debate and discussion over a national consumption tax is, let’s start with the Fair Tax, legislation that has been written up and, I think, signed up on by 80 congressmen and women.

I don’t want to put one innocent person to death to put 99 that are guilty to death. So philosophically I’m a tooth-for-tooth guy, but the reality is the death penalty as public policy is flawed.

One of the biggest concerns that many voters have with both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, but particularly with Ms. Clinton, is the sense that she uses government power to advance her personal and political interests. She is the very status quo. Americans want that changed.

I’m outraged that we’re building roads, schools, and hospitals in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that we’re doing it with borrowed money from China that we’re paying interest on. I’m outraged.

I think Hillary is going to be more hawkish perhaps than Obama. Perhaps more hawkish than Trump. Trump, though, is really a windshield wiper. He says one thing that makes sense and then says something that doesn’t make sense.

I had a ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ experience as governor.

I never, ever, when I entered this process of running for president of the United States, thought I would be excluded from the debate table. Ever. What does two terms as governor get you?

Let’s abolish the IRS, let’s eliminate income tax, let’s eliminate corporate tax, let’s balance the federal budget, and if we need a tax, it can be one federal consumption tax.

I think the world looks down on Republicans for their socially conservative views, which includes religion in government.

I hear that Donald Trump is watching the Olympics tonight. He’s seeing how high the Mexican pole vaulters go.

If China wants to spend $10 producing a product and sell it for a buck, who benefits from that? I think we do. I’m the free market guy. I think free markets work.

As governor of New Mexico, I would have – I signed a bill banning late term abortion. I’ve always favored parental notification. I’ve always favored counseling. I’ve always favored the notion of no public funds used for abortion.

I think there are plenty of Libertarians that are socially conservative.