Jesse Ventura Quotes

I'm saying 9/11 was to get us into Iraq and get us into Afghanistan.

My position is that it isn't government's job to mandate patriotism. To me, mandating a pledge of allegiance to a government is something Saddam Hussein would do.

There are a lot of good causes out there, but they can't possibly all be served by government.

Patriotism is voluntary. It is a feeling of loyalty and allegiance that is the result of knowledge and belief. A patriot shows their their patriotism through their actions, by their choice.

I love my country, not my government.

Some felt I'm not academically qualified, and they're right.

Once you privatize something, it becomes a for-profit business.

Why should I have to hide the fact that I don't believe there's a supreme being? There's no proof of it. There's no harm in saying you're an atheist. It doesn't mean you treat people any differently. I live by the Golden Rule to do unto others, as you'd want to be treated.
I just simply don't believe in religion, and I don't believe necessarily that there's a supreme being that watches over all of us. I follow the teachings of George Carlin. George said he worshipped the sun. He was a fellow atheist. I'm in good company ... Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, Charles Darwin. It's not like I'm not with good company and intelligent people. There have been some good, intelligent atheists who have lived in the world.

I don't believe we need the government's help as much as some think we do. That belief sets me apart from the Democrats, since their way of dealing with everything is to tax and spend.

Our theaters, our museums, our culture. We have everything New York has without the hassles.

You're lucky if I watch 10 minutes of wrestling a month. Most of the time, I channel surf, and I lose interest after a few minutes.

Anyone can run for office. When I ran for Governor of Minnesota, the only requirement was that you had to be a state resident. I believe you had to be over thirty five years old, something like that. That's the way our country was founded. That anyone can run for office. That you're not required to be a lawyer, you're not required to be anything.

I ain't got time to bleed.

It's convenient how everyone who supports waterboarding and torture, or "enhanced interrogation techniques" as they like to call it, have never experienced it themselves. Yet everyone who has, myself included, are firmly against it.

I speak my mind. That's who I am.

I also believe that government has no business telling us how we should live our lives. I think our lifestyle choices should be left up to us. What we do in our private lives is none of the government's business. That position rules out the Republican Party for me.

Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people's business. I live by the golden rule: Treat others as you'd want them to treat you. The religious right wants to tell people how to live.

The Constitution guarantees us our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That's all. It doesn't guarantee our rights to charity.

A vote is "wasted" when someone fails to vote their conscience.

I'm the only person in the world that, when he holds down two jobs, gets criticized for it; everyone else gets a pat on the back and say, 'What an entrepreneuring, hardworking person,' but apparently that doesn't apply to me.

I have metal in my body, so every time I go to an airport, the metal detector goes off.

If you start studying history closer, you'll find that most all wars are based on false flag operations to get people - to convince the people that they're under attack in some way so that they will support the wars.

If you were to come to Minnesota, I could have you locked up like that. That's power.

My father used to always say to me that, you know, if a guy goes out to steal a loaf of bread to feed his family, they'll give him 10 years, but a guy can do white-collar crime and steal the money of thousands and he'll get probation and a slap on the wrist.

'The Young and the Restless' is my favorite television show.

You can't put civil rights on the ballot.

The pleasure was all yours.

Government cannot be your parent.

I have every right to know how my taxes are spent, how every single penny of it is spent. I have the right to know that.

If you're smart enough to go to college, you should be smart and creative enough to pay for it.

I have an idea about voting, how about on every ballot we include "None of the above". People may laugh at that, but what that is, it is a vote of no confidence in your government and I'm willing to bet that in some elections, 'None of the Above' would win. Imagine if you won the election but lost to 'None of the Above'. Wouldn't that make you re-think your positions?

Industrial hemp is a very useful plant. I challenged the attorney general to get rid of the criminal stigma associated with hemp so we can look at it in terms of how it might be useful.

I will not be a Democrat or a Republican. They are the problem, not the solution. We need to abolish political parties in this country.

I don't want to spend the rest of my life in politics. When I'm finished with my term as governor, I'm going back to the life that's waiting for me in the private sector.

Politics is not my life. I have a career in radio and another career in film.

I never believe anything in the world of entertainment until it actually happens and the check clears the bank.

Al Gore, you've been a real inspiration. But a lot of other people who preach the global warming gospel aren't out to save the world. They're out to run it.

Government's role should be only to keep the playing field level, and to work hand in hand with business on issues such as employment. But beyond this, to as great an extent as possible, it should get the hell out of the way.

How come life in prison doesn't mean life? Until it does, we're not ready to do away with the death penalty. Stop thinking in terms of "punishment" for a minute and think in terms of safeguarding innocent people from incorrigible murderers.

Governments are run by people. People can be bad.

We're the Fascist States of America today, not the United States of America, because the corporations are in power.

People in this country need to understand when you go to any airport in the United States, you are not protected by the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. They can do anything they want to you, and there is no where you can go to seek redress.

Remember that government doesn't earn one single dollar it spends. In order for you to get money from the government, that money must first be taken from somebody else.

You give me a water board, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.
(Larry King Live, May 11, 2009)

I love fat people. Every fat person says it's not their fault, that they have gland trouble. You know which gland? The saliva gland.

I'm an Angus King independent.

I do not support the third party movement anymore. I now advocate the abolishment of all political parties. We've allowed the parties to take over the government.

I'm an equal opportunity despiser.

'The David Letterman Show' is a show of comedy.

Patriotism to your country is something that comes from your heart. It should be taught to you by your parents.

George Bush keeps saying that terrorists keep attacking us because we have freedom here in America. So what, the solution is to take away our freedoms and they won't attack us?

Let's face it: WikiLeaks exists because the mainstream media haven't done their job.

As governor, there isn't a lot I can do beyond that to crack down on crime. Law enforcement is really a local issue. It's the cops' job to tighten down on criminals.

I'm a warrior at heart; I'm an ex-Navy Seal. I'm too old to wage war anymore, and so now I wage it mentally. And so I find politics very stimulating; it's war without guns.

There is no right religion, and no one can prove that there is.

I view the United States, today, much like East Berlin. And I'm off the grid. I've tried for 20 years to warn the country about the Democrats and Republicans, and nobody's listening.

My children were attacked by the Minnesota media when I was governor.

I'm not allowed on FOX, and I'm not allowed on MSNBC.

[the downfall of our political system is the] buying and selling of politicians ... bribery. In the private sector, you're arrested for it. In the public sector, it's the norm ...

Get every candidate to wear a NASCAR racing suit when they go debate; this way we can see how their sponsors really are.

There is much more to being a patriot and a citizen than reciting the pledge or raising a flag.

Love is by far bigger than the government can ever be.

Our military doesn't defend our American people. Our military is the strong-arm muscle of corporations.

The first thing out of Fidel Castro's mouth to me, he looked me right in the eye and said, 'You're a man of great courage.'

Remember something, if you will, about voting: Voting is not a horse race, you're not going there thinking "Gee, I gotta pick the winner so I can brag to my friends 'Oh, I picked so-and-so and he or she won'". Voting is voting your heart and voting your conscience and when you've done that, don't ever, EVER let a Democrat or Republican tell you that you've wasted your vote because the fact is, if you DON'T vote your heart and conscience then you HAVE wasted your vote.

Republicans are not a political party. It's a mental condition.

If the government mandates anything with a price tag on it, then it ought to fund the project.

Congratulations, you have a sense of humor. And to those who didn't: Go stick your head in the mud.

When I ran for governor of Minnesota, I only raised $300,000.

I've never been arrested in my life. Never had cuffs put on me, never been charged with a crime, never spent one day in jail.

Listening is as important as talking. If you're a good listener, people often compliment you for being a good conversationalist ...

Personally, I think Julian Assange is a hero.

I'm going to put on my gravestone, 'He never owned a cell phone.'

Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.

I've jumped out of an airplane 34 times. I've dove 212 feet under water. I've done a lot of things that defied death.

The priority of the Democrats and Republicans ... is to preserve ... power when [they have] it, and to gain power when [they do not]. [Their] collective priority ... is to make sure that, together, they control the electoral process and under no circumstances allow an independent or third party to infringe on their exclusive franchise.

I'm against the draft. I believe we should have a professional military; it might be smaller, but it would be more effective.

I follow the teachings of Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, United States Marine Corps. He won two Congressional Medals of Honor, and he wrote the highly controversial antiwar book 'War is a Racket.'

I don't think I would want the responsibility for enforcing the death penalties. There's always the inevitable question of whether someone you gave the order to execute might truly have been innocent.

It seems that elections today are more popularity than they are substantial issues.

When the Constitution gave us the right to bear arms, it also made us responsible for using them properly. It's not fair of us as citizens to lean more heavily on one side of that equation than on the other.

I tend to like to read history - recent history, because I find that much more intriguing than just a writer's imagination.

They look like to carp going after the same piece of corn.

Government has no place telling you who to fall in love with and who to marry.

Health insurance should be a given for every citizen.

I've been water-boarded, and I speak from experience, and it's torture.

You don't need lawyers making laws. Regular citizens can make laws. Let the lawyers work under the laws.

Let's remember, the CIA's job is to go out and create wars.

When you reach a certain age in life, time becomes more important than money, and I think that happens in your 50s.

What do we have for veterans? Government-run health care. I understand that. Congressmen and senators ... they get five choices of government-run health care. Why should a congressman and senator get anything more than a regular citizen does? Why are they privileged and the rest of us aren't?

Well my question is if the federal courts don't have jurisdiction over a constitutional question then who the hell does?

I speak my mind. If it offends some people, well, there's not much I can do about that. But I'm going to be honest. I'm going to continue to speak my mind, and that's who I am ...

When you drink fluoridated water, you're drinking liquid Prozac. You drink enough of it, even though it's a small amount, drink it for decades and decades and what does Prozac do to you? It dumbs you down; it makes you docile.

If I were an innocent individual, flown to a foreign country and held for several years and tortured, I'd become a terrorist, too. I'd go to war against the U.S.

You can have solid third party politics, but the problem is you're all lumped in to all the fringe groups. That's a stereotype that happens.

It's a good thing I'm not the president, because I would prosecute everybody who was involved in that torture, I would prosecute the people who did it, I would prosecute the people who ordered it and they would all go to jail! Because Torture is against the law!

There's no question that we need tougher drunk-driving laws for repeat offenders. We need to take a lesson from European countries where driving isn't a right but a privilege.

I live in Mexico in the wintertime, and I live off the grid down there.

You can't legislate against stupidity.

I wish they would pass a law where all Democrats and Republicans had to wear NASCAR racing suits, because if you look at the NASCAR drivers, it tells who their sponsors are. And if they do that, we could then become informed voters, because we would know who owns them.