Ted cruz quotes

Theirs is the party that ... responds to the death of Americans at Benghazi by asking, What difference does it make?

I looked at the pilgrims coming to America. In their first year, they decided to try a communist experiment. And the first year of the pilgrims, they established this socialistic concept: 'Well, we have all this land before us - let us all work it together.' Oh, how wonderful it sounded. 'Let us all work it together, and we will share in the produce of the land.' They almost starved to death! Almost half of them died, that very first year.

It's going to take a new generation of courageous conservatives to help make America great again.

In the history of humanity, there's never been a country like America.

Whatever the history of U.S. intervention in Iraq, our priorities now should be to protect our people and defend our national security interests, not to try to resolve an intractable religious divide some 1,500 years in the making.

I love Texas, I can't wait in a couple of days to be home to the great state.

I am glad to welcome my friend Rand Paul into the 2016 GOP primary. Rand is a good friend, and we have worked side by side on many issues. I respect his talent, his passion, and the work he has done for Kentuckians and Americans in the U.S. Senate. His entry into the race will no doubt raise the bar of competition, help make us all stronger, and ultimately ensure that the GOP nominee is equipped to beat Hillary Clinton and to take back the White House for Republicans in 2016.

We deserve leaders who stand for principal, who unite us all behind shared values, who cast aside anger for love. That is the standard we should expect from everybody.

Washington D.C. politics is like Hollywood for ugly people.

In Texas, we cook bacon a little differently than most folks...MACHINE-GUN BACON.

There are more words in the IRS code than there are in the Bible. And not a one of them is as good.

I appreciate the good work that senators in both parties have put into trying to fix our broken immigration system. There are some good elements in this proposal, especially increasing the resources and manpower to secure our border and also improving and streamlining legal immigration. However, I have deep concerns with the proposed path to citizenship. To allow those who came here illegally to be placed on such a path is both inconsistent with rule of law and profoundly unfair to the millions of legal immigrants who waited years, if not decades, to come to America legally.

We will not defeat radical Islamic terrorists as long as we have a president [Barack Obama] unwilling to utter the words 'radical Islamic terrorists'.

In the Second Amendment, it's not about hunting, it's not about target shooting, it's about protecting your home and your family and your life.

I'm the son of a pastor and evangelist and I've described many times how my father, when I was a child, was an alcoholic. He was not a Christian. And my father left my mother and left me when I was just three years old. And someone invited him to Clay Road Baptist Church. And he gave his heart to Jesus and it turned him around. And he got on a plane and he flew back to my mother and me.

I have never supported amnesty, and I led the fight against Chuck Schumer's gang of eight amnesty legislation in the Senate.

Donald [Trump] is a charming person. He can be fun. He can make you laugh. But he can turn on you. And get nasty and personal and vicious.

The more liked you are in Washington, the less liked you are in the rest of America, and vice versa.

I think the debate was really some powerful moments of clarity. We saw that Donald Trump, substantively, has the same issues on issue after issue as Hillary Clinton. He agreed with Hillary Clinton on Libya, toppling the government in Libya. That led directly to Benghazi, led to handing that country over to radical Islamic terrorism.

There is a better vision for our future: A return to freedom.

But you know what? There's far more pain involved in rolling over, far more pain in hiding.

Keep government out of the money of the people, schools of the people, and will of the people.

Political correctness is bad.

We need a president who is focused on defeating every single ISIS terrorist and protecting the homeland, which should be the first priority.

One of the problems in Washington is there are far too many politicians who desperately just want to get re-elected.

The Obama-Clinton economy has done enormous damage to the Hispanic community.

I want more rules, more scrutiny, and to defend the country.

I offer myself as a leader to the people of this country because I think they're looking for solutions, not lawyers arguing over laws or entertainers throwing out sound bites that draw media attention. We need to solve the problem.

Start being biblically correct, instead of politically correct.

What I endeavor to do is shine a light on what happens at the court, both as a law clerk and then as a litigator litigating and winning major cases in front of the Supreme Court over and over and over again.

I think it's an enormous blessing to be the child of an immigrant who fled oppression, because you realize how fragile liberty is and how easily it can be taken away.

The National Enquirer is complete garbage, it is total lies, it was planted by Donald Trump's henchmen, and I don't think the people of Wisconsin or the people of America have any interest in tabloid trash.

I was then and am now very much a happy warrior, very much joyful. Not engaging in character attacks myself, just putting out, "Here are the facts, here are the evidence."And I noted, for example, that both of them [Marco Rubio and Donald Trump] were relying on fabrications.

I want you to take a good, hard look at me, America, because this is exactly what you’ve got coming.

I do think if we take the power out of Washington and bring it back to the people, if we defend the Bill of Rights, free speech, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, privacy, if we repeal Obamacare, abolish the IRS, if we get Washington out of the way of job creators, I think we can transform this country.

About 65 percent of Republicans believe that Donald Trump is not the best candidate to go head to head with Hillary Clinton.

I know very much what I believe.

Social justice is collectivism. Social justice is the rights of a group. It denies individual responsibility. It's a negation of individual responsibility, so social justice is totally contrary to the Word of God.

The court follows elite opinion, not public opinion. And Democratic leaders in Congress and Republican leaders in Congress follow elite opinion as well. It's what I've called "the Washington cartel." It's career politicians in both parties. It is lobbyists and giant corporations.

I have been proud to fight and stand for religious liberty, to stand against Planned Parenthood, to defend life for my entire career.

It is very simple to be likeable in Washington. You just go along to get along. You just do what your leadership wants.

I believe the American people are looking for someone to speak the truth.

What I believe is that we should defend life.

The proper way to make policy changes is for you to convince your fellow citizens that there is a better policy outcome than the current one. And then in state legislatures, for those state legislatures to vote that change.

A lot of my colleagues actually yell and curse at each other. I don't do that.

Donald [Trump]. I understand rules are very hard for you. They're very confusing.

The essence of the conservative message should be we want a dynamic nation where anybody with nothing can achieve anything.

I'm a constitutionalist. You know, does faith matter to me? Sure. But the beauty of the Constitution, the beauty of the First Amendment, it protects everyone's faith.

I am perfectly happy to compromise and work with anybody. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians. I’ll work with Martians. If — and the if is critical — they're willing to cut spending and reduce the debt.

If the Republican Party stands for individual liberty, if we defend the Bill of Rights, if we stand for keeping this country safe, then we deserve to win, and if we don't, we deserve to lose. It shouldn't be - it's not just a game of blue team/red team. It is actually about making a difference in people's lives.

I believe every human life is a gift from God and we should cherish and protect and celebrate them.

You don't have to solve every problem at once.

I think primary voters have a right to know. And Donald's Trump excuse of it that he's being audited, look, that makes it even more important for him to release his taxes, so that voters can see if there is - Mitt Romney suggested there could be a bombshell there. I don't know if there is or not. But Donald is hiding them from the voters, and I think he owes candor to the voters.

Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan understand that government does not create jobs. Entrepreneurs do.

The court doesn't follow public opinion. The court's views are radically out of step with public opinion.

My touchstone for every question is the Constitution.

The problem we have is not Democrats versus Republicans. It is a Washington cartel. I've said many times the biggest divide we have politically is not between Republicans and Democrats. It's between career politicians in both parties and the American people.

I want to commend the men and women at CPAC. As activists fighting for liberty, fighting for the Constitution, y'all are incredibly important. You are incredibly important number one in shocking and terrifying the mainstream media.

He [Donald Trump] said in the debate - he said, gosh, I'm being audited for two years. Then he said three years. Then he said maybe five years. Listen, if there's a problem in his taxes, the voters have a right to know, because come September, October, the general election, folks in the media are going to make a heyday about any problems in his taxes.

We are the change we're waiting for.

Millions of Americans are standing up and saying, 'We want our country back!' Republicans, Democrats, Independents, will not go down the path of Greece, we will not go quietly into the night.

I'm a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly. And Ben [Carson] you're a terrible surgeon.

While there may have been an age difference, Josh Duggar's transgressions are far less an affront to God than what gays do with each other.

In the 13 months I've been in the Senate, it has become apparent to me the single thing that Republican politicians hate and fear the most, and that is when they're forced to tell the truth. It makes their heads explode.

We don't have storm troopers that just knock on the door of every American citizen. We don't do that for any crime. But when we have evidence that a particular person has committed a crime, we send law enforcement to apprehend them.

If you're looking for someone to go to Washington, to go along to get along, to get - to agree with the career politicians in both parties who get in bed with the lobbyists and special interests, then I ain't your guy.

The American free market system is the greatest engine for prosperity and opportunity that the world has ever seen. Freedom works.

Always be sexy. I salute that message.

ISIS says they want to go back and reject modernity? Well, I think we should help them. We ought to bomb them back to the Stone Age.

Climate change is the perfect pseudoscientific theory for a big government politician who wants more power. Why? Because it is a theory that can never be disproven.

The Constitution is brilliant for accountability; for posing factions against each other, to fight amongst themselves in government, which protects our liberty. But also in ensuring that decision-making is made by those who the people can hold accountable.

Liberty is never safer than when politicans are terrified.

Move over to Egypt. Once again, the [Barack] Obama administration, encouraged by Republicans, toppled [Hosni] Mubarak who had been a reliable ally of the United States, of Israel, and in its place, [Mohamed] Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood came in, a terrorist organization.

Carli Fiorina thinks the answer for Social Security and Medicare is...zero-based budgeting! Christ. People of a certain age are all banging their heads on the table right now.

There's a lot of despair in the USA. Young people are afraid for the future.

I think too many politicians are not listening to the men and women they represent, and if we're going to change the path America is on, we have got to be fighting for policies not that benefit the giant corporations and the banks and the special interests and the lobbyists, which is what Washington focuses on every day, but instead every policy needs to focus on the working men and women, the truck drivers and the steelworkers, and the young people.

Well, guess what, I’m Cuban! And no self-respecting Cuban man of the era would let his wife work.

This man [Barack Obama] does not have the interests of our country. That's not his agenda. His agenda is to bring us down to a third-world country.

I treat him [Donald Trump] as an entertainer. I laugh it off. It's like going to the circus and seeing the acrobats and the dancing bears. He's willing to say things that are patently false.

If Donald Trump is president, he will appoint liberals.

If we want to defend the country, we have to defend against who's coming in.

And that was always our plan. Do well in the first three states, and then compete and have a very strong night on Super Tuesday. I think we're ideally positioned to do exactly that.

It took Jimmy Carter to give us Ronald Reagan.

We are seeing a great awakening. A national movement of We the People, brought together by what unites us - a shared love of liberty, and an understanding of the unlimited potential of free men and free women.

The path we're on has taken the USA to the brink of bankruptcy.

A good impression is great. But a bad impression is even better.

Remember the lessons of history - if we don't learn from history, we're bound to repeat it.

I believe you [Donald Trump] know politicians better than I do because for 40 years you've been funding liberal Democratic politicians.

I think the first and principle objective is to repeal Obamacare before it does lasting, fundamental damage to our health care system, to our individual liberty, to the relationship each of us has with his or her doctor.

One of the problems with Marco's [Rubio] foreign policy is he has far too often supported Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama undermining governments in the Middle East that have helped radical Islamic terrorists.

I don't think we should be engaged in nation-building. It's not our job to turn foreign nations into democratic utopias, to try to turn Iraq into Switzerland. It is the military's job to hunt down and kill our enemies, to kill ISIS before they murder American citizens and they wage jihad.

Everyone seems to have internalized the fact that you can say anything you want at a televised debate, and only a tiny fraction of the audience will ever see a fact-check. So why not claim the moon is square?

One of the things that I intend to devote a lot of time to in the coming years is continuing to try to move people's hearts and minds with humor, with stories, with anecdotes, with facts and information.

At the debate, Donald Trump backed off of his health care position for 20 years. For 20 years, he has agreed with Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on socialized medicine, saying Obamacare doesn't go far enough. He wants the government to pay for everyone's health care and to control it.

We need the private sector's help, because government is not innovating. Technology is running ahead by leaps and bound. The private sector will help, just as I helped after 9/11. But they must be engaged, and they must be asked. I will ask them. I know them.

Mike Huckabee says the answer to our problems is to cure all diseases. I guess no one's thought of that before.

We will stop the terrorist attacks before they occur because we will not be prisoners to political correctness. Rather, we will speak the truth. Border security is national security and we will not be admitting jihadists as refugees.

I think if you're at home and you don't want Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee, then the only candidate who can beat Donald is our campaign. And so I would encourage, even if you like another candidate, stand with us if you don't want Donald to be the nominee.

Far too many young people are living in their parents' basements, and I think it is important for people to have hope and a vision things can be different.

Today, the global warming alarmists are the equivalent of the flat-Earthers. It used to be [that] it is accepted scientific wisdom the Earth is flat, and this heretic named Galileo was branded a denier.

Every candidate is going to come to you and say they are the most conservative person that ever lived.

I've spent the past month in Washington D.C. and it is terrific to be back in America.

If we look at it more from a philosophical standpoint, these foundations of atheism and secular humanism believe that you are your own God. That leads us to something that unfortunately has crept into many churches across America, and it is what I call the Social Gospel. The social gospel, that could creep into something that is called Liberation Theology, which is a mixture of leftist, pseudo-Christianity with Marxism.

I'm a big believer that good policy is good politics. And so, when it comes to making decisions on policy issues, what I endeavor to do is simply speak the truth.

As president, I wouldn't be making the day-to-day combat decisions. The job of the commander-in-chief is to lay the objective out and then you rely upon the generals and admirals and commanders to give you their expert advice on the tools needed to carry out that objective.

We're seeing so many people come around and say, "Listen, we want a real conservative. We don't want a Washington dealmaker who will support Democrats and cut deals to grow government and give into the cronyism and corporate welfare."

I was born in Cuba. At the age of 14 years of age I was involved in a revolution. We were suffering from a very cruel, oppressive dictatorship, and the revolution started in the high schools and the universities. So when I was 14, I was involved in the revolution. I was in the revolution four years. During that time, a young, charismatic leader rose up in Cuba, talking about hope and change. His name was Fidel Castro.

It is profoundly troubling when you have Supreme Court justices not following their judicial oath. And taking the role of policy makers and legislators, rather than being judges.

You have to be willing to have the decision-making follow the data.

I get that the media wants us to play theater critics and critique every other proposal. What I`m focusing on are my own policy proposals.

It's just like calling homosexuals 'gays.' Gay means happy! You know, it's just to try to dilute it so that it becomes socially acceptable, and if you say anything against homosexual marriage or anything - 'Oh, you're not tolerant.' So we're supposed to prostitute our principles, on behalf of tolerance.

I think Hillary Clinton's nomination and I think Donald Trump's nomination, I think the media played decisive roles in both of them.

Let's go back to the beginning of the Obama administration, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama led NATO in toppling the government in Libya. They did it because they wanted to promote democracy. A number of Republicans supported them. Well, the result is, Libya is now a terrorist war zone run by jihadists.

We are witnessing a great awakening. Millions of Texans, millions of Americans are rising up to reclaim our country, to defend liberty and to restore the Constitution.

If you want a candidate to defend life and marriage and religious liberty and the Second Amendment and to appoint strong constitutionalists to the court, I'm the only candidate with that record. That's why conservatives are uniting behind our campaign. And if they want to continue with the attacks, that's their prerogative.

What animates me in politics are the economic issues of opportunity.

I think the working men and women are getting hammered right now. They want someone they can trust to stand with them. And part of the reason so many conservatives are uniting behind our campaign is, I'm the only one who led the battle against amnesty, has led the battle to secure the borders, has led the battle for the working men and women of this country.

And many of the alarmists on global warming, they've got a problem cause the science doesn't back them up. And in particular, satellite data demonstrate for the last 17 years, there's been zero warming. None whatsoever.

Social justice is group psychology, it's group rights, it's collectivisim, and it's a negation of individual responsibility, which is what the Bible teaches. Individual responsibility. And of course, social justice leads very quickly to socialism, and ultimately to communism.

I had a back-and-forth where I asked Donald Trump, is it true or false that he said the government should pay for everyone's health care? He said it's false. Listen, within minutes, we put out a video just contrasting what he said there with video of him just a few months earlier saying exactly the opposite.

I think our nation faces enormous challenges, and we need leaders who are willing to tell the truth and do the right thing regardless of the consequences.

I'm an optimist at heart.

The last 15 years, there has been no recorded warming. Contrary to all the theories that they are expounding, there should have been warming over the last 15 years. It hasn't happened.

America has receded from the world. Today our friends and allies don't trust us. And our enemies don't fear us. I think we should get back, number one, to American leadership in the world.

I introduced legislation in the Senate that I believe is more narrowly focused at the actual threat, which is radical Islamic terrorism, and what my legislation would do is suspend all refugees for three years from countries where ISIS or Al Qaida control substantial territory.