Ralph Nader Quotes

"Turn on to politics, or politics will turn on you."

"Your best teacher is your last mistake."

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."

"The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That's the only difference."

"I once said to my father, when I was a boy, 'Dad we need a third political party.' He said to me, 'I'll settle for a second.'"

"A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity."

"The liberal intelligentsia has allowed its party to become a captive of corporate interests."

"The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun."

"Power has to be insecure to be responsive."

"A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done."

"For almost seventy years the life insurance industry has been a smug sacred cow feeding the public a steady line of sacred bull."

"Let's not just look at it as taking votes away from Gore. Our support comes from a lot of people."

"President Reagan was elected on the promise of getting government off the backs of the people and now he demands that government wrap itself around the waists of the people."

"People are stunned to hear that one company has data files on 185 million Americans."

"I start with the premise that the function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers."

"The nation is faced with one of the most corporate-orientated anti-consumer Congresses in our history."

"I don't think meals have any business being deductible. I'm for separation of calories and corporations."

"It is fascinating to watch legislators turn away from their usual corporate grips when they hear the growing thunder of the people."

"The shortcomings of America's political leaders do not stop at our borders."

"The networks are not some chicken-coop manufacturing lobby whose calls nobody returns."

"If God hadn't meant for us to eat sugar, he wouldn't have invented dentists."

"Sanctions against polluters are feeble and out of date, and are rarely invoked."

"There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship."

"When strangers start acting like neighbors... communities are reinvigorated."

"No presidential candidate should visit Las Vegas without condemning organized gambling."

"Every time I see something terrible, it's like I see it at age 19. I keep a freshness that way."

"John D. Rockefeller wanted to dominate oil, but Microsoft wants it all, you name it: cable, media, banking, car dealerships."

"The corporate lobby in Washington is basically designed to stifle all legislative activity on behalf of consumers."

"The 'democracy gap' in our politics and elections spells a deep sense of powerlessness by people who drop out, do not vote, or listlessly vote for the 'least worst' every four years and then wonder why after every cycle the 'least worst' gets worse."

"This country has far more problems than it deserves and far more solutions than it applies."