Ben Carson Quotes

Dr. Ben Carson has the most moving personal narrative in modern presidential politics. His mother, one of 24 children, had only a third-grade education. She was married at age 13, bore Ben and his brother, and then raised the boys as an impoverished single mother in Detroit. As a young boy, Carson was a terrible student. ~ Nicholas Kristof

When I entered Yale, I had to face two important facts about myself. First, though I could consider myself a smart enough person - I was not quite as smart as I thought I was. Second, I did not know how to do in-depth studying. ~ Ben Carson

We need to find ways to elevate the expectations, particularly of those individuals who may start off on a lower socioeconomic rung, who might be seen as disadvantaged. But, you know, the reason I say be seen as disadvantaged, it's because life is so short, and there's so much that can change. ~ Ben Carson

What is the best thing that happens if we refuse to abide by the dictates of political correctness? I believe that we could return to a nation that truly cherishes freedom of speech and freedom of expression. ~ Ben Carson

We want to make decisions based on facts. Many people do not. They make their decisions based on what their momma says or what their daddy says or what their political party says - without engaging their brains. ~ Ben Carson

When I treat other people with kindness and love, it is part of my way of paying my debt to God and the world for the privilege of living on this planet. ~ Ben Carson

America's leaders should be examples of integrity and high moral standards. When their behavior evokes shame rather than pride and becomes something that we don't want to discuss in front of the children at the kitchen table, we should consider impeachment. ~ Ben Carson

If we recognize our talents and use them appropriately, and choose a field that uses those talents, we will rise to the top of our field. ~ Ben Carson

When I entered high school I was an A-student, but not for long. I wanted the fancy clothes. I wanted to hang out with the guys. I went from being an A-student to a B-student to a C-student, but I didn't care. I was getting the high fives and the low fives and the pats on the back. I was cool. ~ Ben Carson

I hope we can continue to find ways to encourage integrity in all aspects of government operations ~ Ben Carson

Saul Alinsky advised his followers to level sharp attacks against their opponents with the goal of goading them into rash counterattacks that would then discredit them. To avoid falling into this trap, those of us who are interested in civil discussion should prepare ourselves to refrain from reacting in fear or anger to those who disagree with us or even attack us. ~ Ben Carson

Because if you don't accept excuses, pretty soon people stop giving them, and they start looking for solutions. And that is a critical issue when it comes to success. ~ Ben Carson

We were very poor. But between the covers of books I could go anywhere, I could be anybody, I could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment. As I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that the person who had the most to do with you and what happened to you in life, is you. You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that decision. ~ Ben Carson

[Ben Carson] critics say that your inexperience shows. You've suggested that the Baltic States are not a part of NATO, you were unfamiliar with the major political parties and government in Israel, and domestically, you thought Alan Greenspan had been treasury secretary instead of federal reserve chair. ~ Megyn Kelly

There's no question that as science, knowledge and technology advance, that we will attempt to do more significant things. And there's no question that we will always have to temper those things with ethics. ~ Ben Carson

Being a member of a minority race doesn't mean being a minority achiever. ~ Ben Carson

Here is the treasure chest of the world - the public library, or a bookstore. ~ Ben Carson

What will maintain the pinnacle position of our nation in the world: the ability to shoot a 25-foot jump shot, or the ability to solve a quadratic equation? ~ Ben Carson

If we no longer talk freely and openly about faith, we won't understand the language or the significance of faith, we'll misinterpret the religious words and deeds of others, and we'll underestimate the power faith can have in the lives of those deeply committed to their spiritual beliefs. This may present a serious risk to a generation whose most troubling conflicts promise to involve people who are primarily motivated by a very different faith. If we don't understand the faith roots of our American culture, how will we be able to defend it against theirs? ~ Ben Carson

Then, as they began to decline, they all experienced some peculiar similarities: an inordinate emphasis on sports and entertainment, a fixation with lifestyles of the rich and famous, political corruption, and the loss of a moral compass. ~ Ben Carson

If we commit ourselves to reading thus increasing our knowledge, only God limits how far we can go in this world. ~ Ben Carson

Some historical revisionists have also attempted to diminish the role of God and religion in our nation's past. A careful examination of the records, however, makes it quite clear that religion was a very important factor in the development of our nation. In 1831 when Alexis de Tocqueville came to America to try to unravel the secrets to the success of a fledgling nation that was already competing with the powers of Europe on virtually every level, he discovered that we had a fantastic public educational system that rendered anyone who had finished the second grade completely literate. He was more astonished to discover that the Bible was an important tool used to teach moral principles in our public schools. No particular religious denomination was revered, but rather commonly accepted biblical truths became the backbone of our social structure. ~ Ben Carson

Today our nation is in such shambles that it appears that almost anyone could do a better job of execution than the current leaders. The principal problem appears to be a lack of congruency between the president and the people. His goal seems to be a utopian society managed by the government, rather than the free, self-governing society that the founders left us. Americans want to be free, and the president's approval ratings indicate that "we the People" do not agree with his goals. I pray that the next president will have a set of values that matches those of the majority of Americans. I pray that he will use his power to encourage the "can-do" attitude that characterized America's rapid ascent to the pinnacle of the world. ~ Ben Carson

I would never turn my back on my fellow citizens. ~ Ben Carson

I am convinced that knowledge is power - to overcome the past, to change our own situations, to fight new obstacles, to make better decisions. ~ Ben Carson

I think Dr. Ben Carson is a unique political personality. He's what we call a conviction politician. He actually believes in what he says. Here's a fellow who had been a neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins for over 30 years. Babies conjoined at the head, he is the one that did that. He's a superstar. Ben Carson steps away from medicine, looks at the political environment around him, and he is aghast at what he sees. ~ Daniel Henninger

I have this feeling that as time goes on, we're not getting any more civilized, and we should be. We're still running around like the days of Genghis Khan. There are so many important, better things to do and we need to encourage people to reach into the brighter side of humanity and not encourage people to continue to glorify the darker side. ~ Ben Carson

The human brain has billions of neurons and hundreds of billions of interconnections. It can process more than two million bits of information per second and can remember everything you have ever seen or heard. ~ Ben Carson

Before this country came on the scene, for thousands of years people did things the same way. Within 200 years of the advent of this nation, men were walking on the moon, and I want us to recognize this is the kind of people that we are. We're creative with a lot of ingenuity and a lot of energy. ~ Ben Carson

One of the reasons surgeons have so much trouble separating Siamese twins is that nobody gets to do many of them. On the table, the anatomy is so different from normal, that you're constantly trying to figure out, 'Can I cut this? Does this wire lead to what?' It's like trying to defuse a bomb. ~ Ben Carson

Successful people don't have fewer problems. They have determined that nothing will stop them from going forward. ~ Ben Carson

God has given us more than fourteen billion cells and connections in our brain. Why would God give us such a complex organ system unless he expects us to use it? ~ Ben Carson

I serve God, and my purpose is to please Him, and if God be for you, who can be against you? ~ Ben Carson

If we acknowledge our need for God, he will help us. ~ Ben Carson

It's very important for people to know themselves and understand what their value system is, because if you don't know what your value system is, then you don't know what risks are worth taking and which ones are worth avoiding. ~ Ben Carson

Those of us who believe in God and derive our sense of right and wrong and ethics from God's Word really have no difficulty whatsoever defining where our ethics come from. People who believe in survival of the fittest might have more difficulty deriving where their ethics come from. A lot of evolutionists are very ethical people. ~ Ben Carson

If you go and talk to most people, they mean well but they don't have much of a breadth on education, of knowledge of understanding what the real issues are and therefore they listen to pundits on television who tell them what they are supposed to think and they keep repeating that until pretty soon they say, 'Oh, well that must be true.' ~ Ben Carson

I have no problem whatsoever with allowing gay people to live as they please, as long as they don't try to impose their lifestyle on everyone else. ~ Ben Carson

The babies had been successfully anesthetized after only a few hours, a complex procedure because of their shared blood vessels. ~ Ben Carson

There is a tendency of people to try to make you believe only a few people are smart. As a brain surgeon, I know better than that. ~ Ben Carson

It is unlikely that it was the intention of the founders to give any public official the ability to thwart the will of the people. Although they may have been concerned about mob rule and wanted a judicial system that would prevent that, they also recognized that in many other countries it was assumed that the ruling class always knew better than the people, and they wanted no part of such a system. ~ Ben Carson

Here's the poem in part: If things go bad for you - And make you a bit ashamed, Often you will find out that You have yourself to blame ... Swiftly we ran to mischief And then the bad luck came. Why do we fault others? We have ourselves to blame ... Whatever happens to us, Here are the words we say, "Had it not been for so-and-so Things wouldn't have gone that way." And if you are short of friends, I'll tell you what to do - Make an examination, You'll find the fault's in you ... You're the captain of your ship, So agree with the same - If you travel downward, You have yourself to blame.* ~ Ben Carson

I could easily have decided that life was cruel, that being black meant everything was stacked against me. ~ Ben Carson

Try to inspire them to consider the power and implications of such potential. I tell them that no computer network on earth can come close to the capacity of the average human brain. This resource that each one of us has is a tremendous gift from God - the most complex organ system in the entire universe. ~ Ben Carson

if you can read, honey, you can learn just about anything you want to know. The doors of the world are open to people who can read. And ~ Ben Carson

The Roman Empire was very, very much like us. They lost their moral core, their sense of values in terms of who they were. And after all of those things converged together, they just went right down the tubes very quickly. ~ Ben Carson

During a recent event at a restaurant called Tommy's Country Ham House in South Carolina, presidential candidate Ben Carson delivered a speech right after he lost his front tooth. Which still left him with more teeth than everyone combined at Tommy's Country Ham House. ~ Jimmy Fallon

The government is supposed to conform to our will. By taking the most important thing you have, your health and your health care, and turning that over to the government, you fundamentally shift the power, a huge chunk of it, from the people to the government. This is not the direction that we want the government to go in this nation. ~ Ben Carson

Success is determined not by whether or not you face obstacles, but by your reaction to them. And if you look at these obstacles as a containing fence, they become your excuse for failure. If you look at them as a hurdle, each one strengthens you for the next. ~ Ben Carson

Beware the abuse of Power. Both by those we disagree with, as well as those we may agree with ~ Ben Carson

Civility and political correctness, contrary to the thinking of many, are not the same. Civility constrains behavior and words based on genuine caring about others, while political correctness is only a facade of caring while hoping to cultivate public approval. ~ Ben Carson

Before GOD,no god,after him,there will be no GOD. ~ Ben Carson

One dark night the skeletons that they had carefully hidden in an obscure closet appeared, grabbed them around the throat, and strangled them. ~ Ben Carson

My strong belief is that God created human beings and therefore he knows about every aspect of the human body. So if I want to fix it, I just need to stay in harmony with Him. ~ Ben Carson

Intelligent people tend to talk about the facts. They don't sit around and call each other names. That's what you can find on a third grade playground. ~ Ben Carson

Anyone who can't learn from other people's mistakes simply can't learn, and that;s all there is to it. There is value in the wrong way of doing things. The knowledge gained from errors contributes to our knowledge base. ~ Ben Carson

God has opened many doors of opportunity throughout my lifetime, but I believe the greatest of those doors was allowing me to be born in the United States of America. ~ Ben Carson

What you're saying is that 'I, the superior elite, will take care of you.' Why? Because, you see, that superior, elite group needs to feel superior and elite. And they can't be superior and elite unless you have a whole lot of people down there groveling around. So you keep them down there by feeding them. ~ Ben Carson

Every person is endowed with God-given abilities, and we must cultivate every ounce of talent we have in order to maintain our pinnacle position in the world. ~ Ben Carson

When someone is being particularly mean and nasty, I simply think to myself, he or she used to be a cute little baby, I wonder what happened? ~ Ben Carson

If we would spend on education half the amount of money that we currently lavish on sports and entertainment, we could provide complete and free education for every student in this country. ~ Ben Carson

Happiness doesn't result from what we get, but from what we give. ~ Ben Carson

When I look at the human brain I'm still in awe of it. ~ Ben Carson

Or not they plan to keep the baby. They ~ Ben Carson

Wisdom is essentially the same thing as common sense, the slight difference is that common sense provides the ability to react appropriately, while wisdom is frequently more proactive and additionally encourages the shaping of the environment. ~ Ben Carson

Ben Carson seems pretty proud that he knows how big the Medicare budget is. All that money goes to the private sector, but Carson seems to think the private sector would do a lot better if ... something. I'm not quite sure what. ~ Ted Cruz

If you want to be relevant only in your household, then you only need to know the things that are important in your house, and if you want to be relevant in your neighborhood, you need to know what's important in your neighborhood. The same thing applies to your city, state, and country. And if you want to be relevant to the entire world, program that computer known as your brain with all kinds of information from everywhere in order to prepare yourself. ~ Ben Carson

What do lawyers learn in law school? They learn to win ... What we've got to start thinking about is how do we solve problems. ~ Ben Carson

Although I strongly believe in individual rights and the rights of parents to raise their children as they see fit, I also recognize that public health and public safety are extremely important in our society. Certain communicable diseases have been largely eradicated by immunization policies in this country. We should not allow those diseases to return by forgoing safety immunization programs for philosophical, religious or other reasons when we have the means to eradicate them. ~ Ben Carson

When politicians prioritize local rule instead of trying to force the whole country to agree with them, I think the pursuit of happiness will be within the reach of a far greater portion of our populace. ~ Ben Carson

Illogical thinkers throw names and slurs around because they have no arguments with which to rebut their opponents. Rational people have to keep hammering their points home. ~ Ben Carson

all. Unfortunately, polarizing influences - such as unions that want what they want, gay rights groups, isolationists, and others who cannot or will not consider the opinions of others - have become stronger in recent years, robbing from the pool of moderate legislators and increasing the numbers ~ Ben Carson

No knowledge is ever wasted. To quote the apostle Paul: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God" (Romans 8:28). ~ Ben Carson

Even if you're Bill Gates, you've got problems. I'm sure he would probably easily give a few billion dollars to get rid of all the problems that he has. ~ Ben Carson

People spending more of their own money on routine health care would make the system more competitive and transparent and restore the confidence between the patients and the doctors without government rationing. ~ Ben Carson

People all over the nation are starved for honesty and common sense. ~ Ben Carson

Quite frankly, having an uninformed populace works extremely well, particularly when you have a media that doesn't understand its responsibility and feels more like it's an arm of a political party. They can really take advantage of an uninformed populace. ~ Ben Carson

I want the government to provide the military so we don't get invaded by somebody and destroyed. I want the government to provide the roads so I can get from point A to B. In terms of taking care of my day to day needs, I want to do that myself. I want my community to do that. ~ Ben Carson

I've had experiences in my life that leave no doubt in my mind about the fact that God exists. I'm quite willing to debate people who don't think so because I want them to explain to me how did our solar system get so organized and how is the universe so complex and yet well-organized that we can predict 70 years hence when a comet is coming? ~ Ben Carson

Do your best and let God do the rest. ~ Ben Carson

It's not what you do but that kind of job you do that makes the difference. ~ Ben Carson

We did live in dire poverty. And one of the things that I hated was poverty. Some people hate spiders. Some people hate snakes. I hated poverty. I couldn't stand it. My mother couldn't stand the fact that we were doing poorly in school, and she prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom. What could she do to get her young sons to understand the importance of developing their minds so that they control their own lives? God gave her the wisdom. At least in her opinion. My brother and I didn't think it was that wise. Turn off the TV, let us watch only two or three TV programs during the week. And with all that spare time read two books a piece from the Detroit Public Libraries and submit to her written book reports, which she couldn't read but we didn't know that. I just hated this. My friends were out having a good time. Her friends would criticize her. My mother didn't care. But after a while I actually began to enjoy reading those books. Because we were very poor, but between the covers of those books I could go anywhere. I could be anybody. I could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment. And as I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that the person who has the most to do with you, and what happens to you in life, is you. You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that decision. And I came to understand that I had control of my own destiny. And at that point I didn't hate poverty anymore, ~ Ben Carson

If most of the people in the country believe that America is generally fair and decent, it becomes more difficult for Saul Alinsky types to recruit change agents and for those on the Far Left to undermine our Constitution. Hence the constant bad-mouthing of our nation to impressionable young people, preparing them to be ripe for manipulation at the appropriate time. ~ Ben Carson

I had a mother who would never allow herself to be a victim no matter what happened ... Never made excuses, and she never accepted an excuse from us. And if we ever came up with an excuse, she always said, "Do you have a brain?" And if the answer was yes, then she said, "Then you could have thought your way out of it. ~ Ben Carson

The P.C. police are out in force at all times ... We've reached a point where people are actually afraid to talk about what they want to say. ~ Ben Carson

Over the years my mother's steadfast faith in God has inspired me, particularly when I had to perform extremely difficult surgical procedures or when I found myself faced with my own medical scare. ~ Ben Carson

I think one of the keys to leadership is recognizing that everybody has gifts and talents. A good leader will learn how to harness those gifts toward the same goal. ~ Ben Carson

But, you know, we have these entrenched entities - and I'm talking about both Republicans and Democrats - who believe that when you're elected to office, you become some kind of member of the aristocracy, and that anyone who challenges you is attacking you and is unpatriotic. This is foolishness. ~ Ben Carson

In an ideal world, both parties would desire to uphold the Constitution, ~ Ben Carson

The bottom line was that we have only ourselves to blame. We create our own destiny by the way we do things. We have to take advantage of opportunities ~ Ben Carson

No knowledge is ever wasted. ~ Ben Carson

In general I was a good kid. It usually took a lot to make me mad. But once I reached the boiling point, I lost all rational control. Totally without thinking, when my anger was aroused, I grabbed the nearest brick, rock, or stick to bash someone. It was as if I had no conscious will in the matter. ~ Ben Carson

I had not been content just to read and to learn. I ~ Ben Carson

The key is to cut out the middleman and empower both doctor and patient with information about what things cost. ~ Ben Carson

We have the purveyors of hatred who take every single incident between people of two races and try to make a race war out of it and drive wedges into people. And this does not need to be done. ~ Ben Carson

I believe that things are always going to work out, even if in the beginning it doesn't look like they are working out. I know in the long run they are going to work out, and it's going to be fine. ~ Ben Carson

I think Steve King is absolutely wrong and I just hope that we can try to reach higher ground, because when you are spewing this kind of nonsense, things that Donald Trump says, Ben Carson says, but also [Marco] Rubio and [Ted] Cruz and even Jeb Bush have said. ~ Steve King

Look, again, I'm competing against professional politicians, senators, top of the line. I know Ben Carson is still in, and he's a terrific guy and a talented guy. And so I'm competing against a lot of very good people. ~ Donald Trump

There is so much potential out there in young people and they aren't getting the right information or being encouraged in the right ways. This is our duty as a society. ~ Ben Carson

This is a country for, of, and by the people not for, of, and by the government. If we turn it over to them we cannot complain about what they're doing because this is a natural course of men and we have to hold their feet to the fire. ~ Ben Carson