Top 55 Tim Kaine Quotes

You have got to connect your land use decisions with transportation decisions.

My faith teaches that life is sacred. That’s why I personally oppose the death penalty. But I take my oath of office seriously, and I’ll enforce the death penalty… because it’s the law.

I can’t take classified information that I get as a senator and give it to someone with no consequence.

Anne and I have now been married almost 32 years, and I am the luckiest husband in the world.

As soon as you define what an assault weapon is, you know, you can’t sell a weapon, and here’s how we describe it, gun manufacturers just make one adjustment or two, and they say, ‘See, this isn’t subject to the limitation.’

I have taken the position, which is quite common among Catholics – I have got a personal feeling about abortion, but the right rule for government is to let women make their own decisions.

I have a sort of Catholic-slash-Calvinist view of human nature, but every day I meet somebody who is doing cool things. So people get you out of your solitude and do things that exceed your expectations every day.

I predict after this whole thing is over, what we’ll remember about the failed candidacy of Donald Trump is, ‘You’re fired.’

I went to a Jesuit boys high school, Rockhurst High School.

Midterm elections for first-term presidents are notoriously difficult.

When you want to know something about the character of somebody in public life, look to see if they have a passion that began long before they were in office and that they have consistently held it throughout their career.

I’ve been a city councilman and mayor. I’ve been a lieutenant governor and governor and now, in the Senate, serve on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committee. So I’m a utility player. I just want to do everything I can to make sure A) we win and that B) the presidency of Hillary Clinton is fantastic.

When Democrats kind of cavalierly attack the religious right or go after Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell, our candidates have sent the signal to a lot of religious people, ‘Well, I guess they are not interested in me.’ And I think this includes a lot of people who would fit very naturally within the Democratic Party.

When I talk to people outside the beltway, I don’t think people are that divided.

Like a lot of people, I have been a leader in some things, and I’ve been a follower in some things. I know how to work on a team. And most of life, frankly, to get things done you have to get done, you’ve got to work as a team.

Donald Trump is a guy who has called for privatization of the V.A. That is something that is overwhelmingly rejected by America’s veterans. They do not want to go down that path. Do they want improvement? Sure they do. But they don’t want risky or radical.

If we are going to be serious about enforcing the law, we have to have a background record check system to make sure that people don’t get weapons who shouldn’t.

If you ask people, ‘What do you think, should we kick kids off their family insurance policy in that 21- to 26-year-old age range?’ You go through those… provisions that are already affecting the everyday lives of Americans, and people don’t want to get rid of them.

I think I’m ready to lead. I’m ready first to be a supportive vice president so that the presidency of Hillary Clinton is a fantastic one. But if something were to put that in my path, as much as any human being would be ready, I’d be ready. And you gotta approach it with humility.

Virginians want you to work across the aisle.

It seemed to me to be entirely un-kosher, if that’s a word, to try to put a debate about war right in front of the midterm to try to affect the midterm outcomes.

As governor, I cut $5 billion in spending.

We are all neighbors. And we must love neighbors as ourselves.

As much as the constitutional argument matters to me, what really matters to me is this sort of moral question of can we order somebody to risk their lives about a military mission if we’re not willing to debate, vote, and say that the military mission matters?

For Donald Trump, Latinos are second-class citizens. We believe we are all Americans. We believe we are strong together. There is a big difference in this sense between the two parties and the candidates.

What ‘listo’ means in Spanish is this: it means prepared, it means battle-tested, it means rock solid, up for anything, never backing down. And, friends, Hillary Clinton, she is listo!

Let me let you in on a secret. I do plan to be on the podium with President Clinton when she’s inaugurated in January 2017 – but I’m going to be sitting with the senators.

I kind of struggled as a 10-year-old to make out what it meant that Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were killed within two months of each other. I think I was 14 when Watergate happened and a president was impeached. So between my birth and age 14, I just saw a lot of turmoil.

One of the things we wrestle with nationally is, ‘If we want the economy to be strong, what should we do?’ Why not learn some lessons from Virginia?

No couples in Virginia can adopt other than a married couple – that’s the right policy.

Authenticity is key.

My sense is, as governor I’ve gotten a lot of stuff done.

I’m not going to be anybody’s punching bag.

The research clearly demonstrates high-quality early childhood opportunities help children succeed.

When I see this, you know, ‘Crooked Hillary,’ or I see the, ‘Lock her up,’ it’s just ridiculous. It is ridiculous. But I just – you know – it is beneath the character of the kind of dialogue we should have. Because we got real serious problems to solve. And look, most of us stopped the name-calling thing about fifth grade.

I just want to serve people. I know it sounds like a simple cliche.

I’m an optimist.

People will pay a price for putting political obstruction over progress in a time that is so critical and urgent.

I’m an introvert on the Myers-Briggs. I’ve got to have time by myself to recharge. My philosophy is sort of that humans are weak, frail, imperfect, and generally kind of bad, but every day I meet somebody who’s good, and that inspires me.

The best way to deal with the deficit is through economic growth.

When people are left out, we’re naturally going to focus on that, if it’s 47 million people who don’t have health insurance, if it’s 23,000 people who die every year because they lack access to health care for something that’s easily treatable.

McCain is completely against the sequester. It was one thing when we had a Democratic chair who was against it – all the Democrats were against it. But to have a Republican chair who is outspoken and strong against the sequester, who has the credentials in military issues – who is going to challenge him?

I ask unanimous consent that I be able to deliver a floor speech on immigration reform in Spanish.

I will say, nothing in my time in the Senate has more surprised me than senators and House members want to weigh in on everything under the sun, but they do not want to weigh in on a clearly defined constitutional duty to declare war. It just stuns me.

My sense is that economic anxiety means electoral volatility.

I work on the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees to keep us safe at home and strong in the world.

A drone isn’t any different than a bomb; it’s not any different than other weapons that are used, where there is always a capacity for people to be killed who you wished were not.

I saw my mother crying for the first time, which made a huge impression on me, when I came home from kindergarten, and she was watching TV because JFK – that Irish Catholic president that we loved – had been killed.

We had a motto in my school: ‘Men for Others.’ And it was there that my faith became something vital. My north star for orienting my life. And when I left high school, I knew that I wanted to battle for social justice.

But people ought to be proud to be Democrats right now. You know, we’re a happy warrior party. And this Congress has every reason to be very, very proud of the heavy lifting that they have done.

I am boring.

There is clearly a Christian New Testament tradition that warns against praying loudly in the front of the temple where everyone can see you.

I think life is sacred, whether it’s abortion or the death penalty.

I do plan to be on the podium with President Clinton when she’s inaugurated in January 2017 – but I’m going to be sitting with the senators.

A drone isn’t any different than a bomb; it’s not any different than other weapons that are used, where there is always a capacity for people to be killed who you wished were not. It’s just the weapons platform.