Deval Patrick Quotations

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.

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.

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

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

A great teacher who is full of excitement and love for her students can make all the difference in their lives.

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

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,

We're Americans. We shape our own future. Let's start by standing up for President Barack Obama.

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

I grew up on the south side of Chicago, most of that time on welfare. My mother and sister and I used to live with my grandparents and various cousins. We shared a two-bedroom tenement, and the three of us slept in one of those bedrooms and had a set of bunk beds.

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

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

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

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

Mitt Romney talks a lot about all the things he's fixed. I can tell you that Massachusetts wasn't one of them. He's a fine fellow and a great salesman, but as governor he was more interested in having the job than doing it.

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.

The summer before my third year of law school, I worked at a law firm in Washington, D.C. I turned 25 that July, and on my birthday, my father happened to be playing in a local jazz club called Pigfoot and invited me to join him. I hadn't spent a birthday with him since I was 3, but I agreed.

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.

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

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.

My grandma forbid us from describing ourselves as poor. She said, 'we're broke.' Because broke is temporary.

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

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.

Senator Kennedy and I have talked about this. I think that he has a point when he talks about the importance of having a regulatory framework to review offshore projects in federal waters. Where we differ is that he thinks we should have that regulatory framework in place before any projects proceed. I think that we have, in fact, built that regulatory framework over the course of review of this project.

I can't get those numbers to work, Tom.

He does have a lot of money. This is not about money.

Gun violence is on the rise in many of our cities today, and illegal gun trafficking from neighboring states is a big part of the problem. We need a coordinated effort to ensure partnership and cooperation with prosecution, community programs and crime prevention. We need leadership from the federal, state and local levels, as well as help from our neighboring states.

I went to big, broken, under-resourced public schools, but we had a real sense of community, because those were days in the '50s and the '60s when every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block.

My most vivid memory of my father centers on the day he left. It was warm, and my mother was especially short with Rhonda and me that afternoon, which I attributed to the heat. I was oblivious to the mounting hostilities in our basement apartment.

Massachusetts invested in me 36 years ago. I lived in Chicago in a two bedroom tenement. I came to Massachusetts when I was 14. I had a scholarship to Milton Academy which to me was the other side of the world.

We are not finished, we don't believe, with these indictments. We're looking deeper into this particular Klan activity in South Carolina and we intend to get to the bottom of it.

We had an unexpectedly large tax liability. We paid what we could and then we worked out an installment plan with the IRS. We missed one payment and we got a lien as a result.

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.

It's a free country. I wish it weren't.

Hope for the best and work for it.

I don't want to be a senator.

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

We'll be competitive with organized labor, we're also competitive with regular, unorganized labor, working people who see their stakes and their future in the plans we're putting forward to move Massachusetts forward.

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

Don't tell me words don't matter,

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

We ought to ask ourselves, if it's good for a kid, then why is it only available to kids whose families have money?

Without signing, what we get is what we have now, which is illegal and undocumented workers driving without training, without accountability. People do what they have to do to survive.

Discontent with Republican is not going to be enough for us to win. We have got to offer more than to replace bad leadership with ordinary leadership. We have to offer creative leadership and vision.

First, join me in agreeing to actively support the Democratic nominee.

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.

The notion that there would be two individuals with exactly the same seniority and exactly the same qualifications who would agree that they are equally qualified seems too unlikely to repeat itself in the real world.

I've fixed hard problems of all kinds, civil rights and business problems. It's the stuff I like to do, and I'm good at it, as a matter of fact... and I never left my conscience at the door.

I view the experiences that I have had - both tough ones and the pleasant ones - as gifts. They've been full of lessons. And I've learned to be open to those lessons.

If the question is, is there some conflict of interest between where or what my sources are and where my sources are and the job of governing, you'll know that from my financial disclosure forms, and that's entirely appropriate.

I frequently feel when I listen to him and to many other elected officials that they are speaking to an audience not in the room.

In a healthy democracy, the voters choose representatives. In the system we have, the representatives choose the voters. That's upside down. This proposal puts us right side up again.

I really analyzed the project, talked to all the sides and stood on the shore.

I file jointly with my wife, so making our tax returns public means making a non-candidate's tax returns public. I'm not going to do that.

I certainly understand the instinct to favor someone with whom you make a personal connection. But I also understand, and everyone else does, the import of also doing the fundamentals in terms of a background check.