Dan Webster Quotes

You can think of all the things a Congress or a legislature does, and then you kind of overshadow that with the fact that a few people are going to make those decisions.

John Boehner is a friend.

I'm a plodder, not a planner.

There are amendments never offered, there are bills never heard, that are basically killed because of the process.

I was Speaker of the House in Florida, first Republican speaker in 120 years. And I totally dismantled the way this House worked and turned it around to what I believe is right.

The policy is one thing, but it's dictated by what the process is.

What really promotes business in this country is liberty, not demand for information.

Once we relieve them from sanctions, their economy opens up, and they can sell oil and pistachios and whatever else they sell around the world. That was why Iran needed a deal. Everyone knows they fund terrorism around the world. Having that extra money will add a lot of problems and create a lot more hot spots.

I'm a homing pigeon. When I'm in Tallahassee, I give everything I have to being, hopefully, the best legislator I can be. When I'm home, I'm home. I try to not do legislative stuff. That brings a balance to life.

I always think I have a chance, and I always give it all I've got.

During its first year of operation, Florida Virtual School had 77 students. The next year, it had 476 students; then 2,489 students the year after that.

If principles don't determine what you are going to pass or do, then power will.

Power says if you are a committee chairman, your idea is good only because you have got power.

When you wait to the last minute, you rush to get things done, and the closer you get to the deadline, the less options you have.

I've never, in my whole 30 years in office, run a negative ad.

Principle says it's not who put forth an idea. It's not the position of the person who put forth an idea; it's not the longevity of the person or the party of the person. That's not what it is at all. In a power system, that's the way it works. But in a principle system, it's what it says.

I'm going to be as sincere as I can in delivering the message I think is right. If people agree, great, and if they don't, I did my best.

I believe that Obamacare is bad for America.

You have got to clean your own house first before you tell other people that they aren't doing it right.

The process for producing public policy in Congress is flawed. The process itself kills policy ideas through the bypassing of the rules and procedural decisions that limit discussion.

I will say this: I've had more pro-life bills, I believe, I ruled unconstitutional - but I tried - than the entire total membership of Congress together.

Nothing happens in any legislative body that's not purposeful.

My whole deal is I want to have a principle-based, member-driven caucus.

We're not even supposed to have a break in August if we have not passed the appropriations bills. It's in the House rules.

There's a picture there that people realize that, we stop helping Israel, we lose God's hand, and we're in big time trouble.

We've got to prove that we can lead, and I'm going to be all-in to help prove that.

I've been a speaker. I've been a majority leader. I've been a minority leader. Those are the sort of things I don't need any more.

We passed a bill in 1997, signed by Democratic Gov. Lawton Chiles, which created a pilot program for a novel experiment called Florida Virtual School. The notion of children using a computer for a classroom and reporting to virtual teachers wasn't exactly mainstream thinking in those days.

Every member of Congress deserves a seat at the table to be involved in the process. I will continue fighting for this to become a reality in Washington, and will be running for speaker of the House.

I would like to give evidence we can lead. And I think the only way we can do that is to unify the diversity of the party.

I don't do anything political on Sundays.

I have a problem with the way the House is run. I believe that a few people at the top of a pyramid of power have controlled this place for a long time.

I have saved $1,638,580 over my four years. That may not seem like a lot, faced with our deficit, but multiply it by 435 members of the House - and then the senators get three times as much - and you are adding up several millions in savings.

I changed that system in Florida when I was the Speaker of the House - I was the Minority Leader; I saw for 16 years the way a power system works.

Every member in Congress has a seat, and they deserve a seat at the table.

I found a mistake in a rule. They addressed the wrong rule number ... I pointed it out, did an amendment, and everybody was happy after that.

I was told freshman Republicans don't get their bills heard.

We have a lot of talented people in this Congress, and we can avoid a lot of unintended consequences if we just included them.

I'm not an angry kind of person. What I am is a principled person.

For most of my time in Tallahassee, I did a lot of transportation.

It's different from Washington in that in the legislature, you have to go home and have a job and actually make a living on your own. That gives you a different perspective.

My expectations are not in any future event. I would rather just be prepared for whatever might take place.

Let's take up the most important issues first. Let's take up the reauthorizations first; let's take up the appropriations bill first, not wait until four days beforehand - no one has mentioned anything, and, all of a sudden, somebody looks at their watch and says, 'Hey, in four days, the government is going to run out of money.'

I'm the only person that has ever run a principle-based legislative body.

We're a nation of immigrants - there's no question about that. But we're also a nation of laws. I think we have to honor both of those.

The voters in District 8 shared our vision that Washington is broken, and we're going to go up there and fix it.

The true value of having Florida Virtual School in this mix is that it creates a gold standard for all providers to meet if they hope to compete for Florida students. This program raises the bar for everybody, even the traditional public schools. And that benefits all our children.

The principle is that every member needs to represent their district.

Some people have been talking about - every place I go, they bring up the issue of foreign aid. I go, 'You can't get rid of all foreign aid.'

You take away the money from Israel? No. That's something we can't do.

If you push down that pyramid of power and spread out the base, every member gets a chance to file their bill and have it heard and file their amendment and have it heard, as opposed to the system that we have now, which closes out, closes down bills, limits debate, and so forth.