Deval Patrick Quotes

I think that hope, that ability to envision, to imagine a better way, and then to apply yourself to it, is the way to climb out of a hole, is the way to build a better life, is the way to build a better community and a better country.

This is a horrific day in Boston. My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured.

Anybody who knows me knows that I'm no attack dog.

We need a government that is what we are at our best. Smart, efficient, pragmatic and compassionate.

I do identify with St. Patrick, not just in name. He drove the snakes out of Ireland. I intend to drive the snakes out of the State House.

I have never taken a job or done a job where I felt I needed to leave my conscience at the door. One of the great things about not being in politics as a career is that I can do this job without thinking about my career. I can think about what we're trying to do, what we're trying to accomplish and what we're trying to leave.

"Government" is the name we give to the things we choose to do together.

Be present - and see what a difference it makes in your lives and in the world.

I don't want to be a senator.

I do know that the right words, spoken from the heart with conviction, with a vision of a better place and a faith in the unseen, are a call to action.

We believe that in times like these we should turn to each other, not on each other. We believe that government has a role to play, not in solving every problem in everybody's life but in helping people help themselves to the American dream. That's what Democrats believe.

People read inevitability as entitlement, and the American people want their candidates to sweat for the job. They want them to actually make a case for the job.

People aren't going to go bankrupt anymore if they have a serious illness, which was a serious issue here in the country before the Affordable Care Act. And, in fact, the expense of expanding health care for those who need the subsidy is picked up by the federal government for most of the early years.

I'd like to have another opportunity to serve. I believe in service. I enjoy it. I also like coming and going, you know, because I think that my private-sector life has contributed to how I think about public-sector challenges and what I do in the public sector.

I very much believe in values-based leadership and that the values that I believe in and try to govern by are transcendent values.

We have drained common sense out of our politics. The more we focus on tactics and games, the more good people check out and give up.

Don't tell me words don't matter,

I view the experiences that I have had - both the tough ones and the pleasant ones - as gifts.

If you are ever going to move beyond where you stand at that moment you have to conjure a picture in your head of where you want to go.

Let's go tell everyone we meet that, when the American dream is at stake, you want Barack Obama in charge.

It's time for democrats to grow a backbone and stand up for what we believe.

An important distinction needs to be made in politics between allowing your values to guide you and keeping religion and government separate. Liberals are rightly concerned about government-established and government-supported religion, especially in our religiously polyglot society. But their unwillingness to engage on policy at the level of transcendent and timeless values, for fear of something too moralistic or religious, yields too much ground to the radical political right, which has come to claim Christianity in particular to advance a deeply non-Christian agenda. Theirs is a faith based on intolerance, a faith without compassion. Hating homosexuals and despising immigrants instead of hating poverty and despising homelessness seems to miss the point of a life of faithfulness.

Two [Massachusetts coal burning power plants] remain: Brayton Point in the South Coast region and Mt. Tom, just down the road. Within the next four years, both should shut down and Massachusetts should finally end all reliance on conventional coal generation.

In the view of some people, you can only believe in civil rights if you work as a civil rights lawyer. I just don't buy that.

I remember how my dad was so into herbal solutions and health food well before that stuff became popular.

For too long, Democrats have been telling people what they want to hear. I'm going to tell you what I believe.