John Ashcroft Quotes

The way the terrorist is trained to operate, especially the suicide terrorists, makes punishment and the threat of punishment far less valuable to those who would prevent the crime.

Agents need to be free to pursue investigations in ways that they haven't. There have been restraints that a reformed FBI needs to make sure we don't impose.

The path we have chosen is constitutional.

The transmission of values from one generation to the next is the single most important task of the society. ... What am I doing to shape the values of the society?

What we learned on September 11 is that the unthinkable is now thinkable in the world.

The Patriot Act allows and provides a basis for an exchange of information.

We must not descend to the level of those who perpetrated Tuesday's violence by targeting individuals based on their race, their religion, or their national origin. Such reports of violence and threats are in direct opposition to the very principles and laws of the United States and will not be tolerated.

What did John Ashcroft say about moderates, he said, quote, there are two things you find in the middle of the road, a moderate and a dead skunk and I don't want to be either,

The FBI. is a massive culture. It's been a culture that served America well, and it's been focused on prosecution. But what we need in terms of terrorism is prevention.

Prior to September 11, we thought the world beyond our shores was one world of risk and the world in our continent was another world of risk.

An FBI agent ought to be able to surf the net and look for sites that instruct people how to make bombs.

The FBI has long been a part of the security for the nation's banks because bank robberies have been a priority.

Reasonable regulations regarding the ownership of weapons are appropriate.

The worst mistake a boss can make is not to say 'well done'.

The new rule says that the FBI has the right to go to public places on the same terms and conditions as other members of the public for counter-terrorism purposes.

Nothing that we have authorized conflicts with any law regarding privacy or any provision of the constitution.

I think all we should legislate is morality.

[The war on terrorism isn't a religious war, but] a defense of our right to make moral choices, to seek fellowship with God that is chosen and not commanded.

I don't play full court anymore. I just play half-court.

Do not allow your sorrow or your rage to become hostility toward people on the basis of their ethnicity or their religious views. That is unacceptable; it is out of bounds, and if you break the law, we will prosecute you for it.

How sad, that the group with the most access to the truth chose in several strategic instances to look the other way.

We're going to protect and honor the Constitution, and I don't have the authority to set it aside ... If I had the authority to set it aside, this would be a dangerous government, and I wouldn't respect it.

A trustee has a responsibility to guard the assets of others with a higher degree of care than he does his own.

Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus.

Christianity is a faith in which God sent his Son to die for you.

[Ashcroft vowed to] spare no effort to preserve the rights of all our citizens to pledge allegiance to the American flag.

If America is to be great in the future, it will be if we understand that our source is not civic and temporal, but our source is godly and eternal.

The state's interest in effective crime-fighting should never vitiate the citizens' Bill of Rights.

Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual rights of speech and security respectively, the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers.

Every medium by which people communicate can be subject to exploitation by those with illegal intentions. Nevertheless, this is no reason to hand Big Brother the keys to unlock our e-mail diaries, open our ATM records, read our medical records, or translate our international communications.

There is no priority higher than the prevention of terrorism.

Leaders select noble objectives and pursue them with such intensity that others join them. ... The greatest of all leaders from this perspective was Jesus Christ. ... May your choices be so powerful and magnetic that you'll draw people toward life (Duet. 30:19, ... therefore choose life.-) rather than death, blessing rather than cursing.

I decided this early on at Justice: if the traditional way was the most effective way of doing something, then we'd maintain it. But if it was not functioning at optimum levels, we would be doing the country a disservice by continuing to do things "like we've always done them."

For the first time in a long time, our leaders in Washington understand what Americans of all religious backgrounds have long held to be true: through faith, all things are possible.

By tearing down the wall between law enforcement and the intelligence community, we have been able to share information in a way that was virtually impossible before the Patriot Act.

People who commit crimes should be responsible for those crimes. It doesn't matter whether they're priests or ministers or atheists.

Sometimes the act of walking in the face of the elements helps us come to grips with reality. Or it simply exhausts us to the point of seeing the futility of resisting reality and the futility of denial.

I feel the best way to ensure Americans' freedom is to tighten restrictions on that freedom in any way possible. Only through wiretaps, illegal searches and seizures, unfettered government intrusion, a controlled media and a complete crackdown on free speech can we ensure the liberties of all people.

It doesn't help to wait until something happens and then prosecute the offenders, especially if it's the idea of the offender to extinguish himself in the commission of the crime.

A calculated, malignant, devastating evil has arisen in our world, ... Civilization cannot ignore the wrongs that have been done. America will not tolerate their being repeated. Justice has a new mission, a new calling against an old evil.

Civilized people - Muslims, Christians and Jews - all understand that the source of freedom and human dignity is the Creator.