Quotes by Dick Cheney

I did my 40 years in Washington, 40-plus, and it's time to pause and reflect and think about what I've seen and done.

I have not seen Al Gore's movie.

The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.

You've got a job to do, and because you've got a job to do, you've got to focus on that, so you don't have time for personal considerations.

I've been criticized because I've had the temerity to speak out and done a couple of interviews since I left office. I don't find anything surprising about that.

The important thing here to understand is that the people that are at Guantanamo are bad people. I mean, these are terrorists for the most part.

I do not believe the President requires any additional authorization from the Congress before committing US forces to achieve our objectives in the Gulf.

I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.

I support the President's plan to amend the Constitution, banning same-sex marriage.

Another argument holds that opposing Saddam Hussein would cause even greater troubles in that part of the world, and interfere with the larger war against terror. I believe the opposite is true.

In response to the question Do you think that you underestimated the insurgency's strength? I think so. I guess if I look back on it now, I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence that we've encountered.

Saddam Hussein is aggressively seeking nuclear and biological weapons and the United States may well become the target.

The bottom line is that we've had enormous successes (in Iraq) and we will continue to have enormous successes.

When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry.

There's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government.

Two days ahead of schedule, the world witnessed the arrival of a free and sovereign Iraq.

I think you can not be blown off course by the fluctuations in the public opinion polls.

As Vice President one of the things I spend time on is the continuity of government; that's the main reason I'm here is a back up for the President if anything happens to him.

I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my faults.

In our own country, we take democratic values seriously -- and so we always have a vigorous debate on the issues. That's part of the greatness of America, and we wouldn't have it any other way.

People tell me that Senator Edwards got picked for his good looks, his sex appeal, and his great hair. I say to them: How do you think I got the job?

I was a big supporter of waterboarding. I was a big supporter of the enhanced

interrogation techniques.

I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

My belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators.

I believe that marriage is between a man and a woman. But I also believe that gay and lesbians and gay and lesbian couples, those who have been in long-term relationships, deserve to be treated respectfully, they deserve to have benefits.

I got sick, hospitalized, had no insurance. And the money I had saved for our honeymoon went to pay medical bills. So I had been in the position of not having insurance when I needed health care.

Obviously, it's a big problem how do we provide quality care to the maximum number of people. And it's not an easy problem to solve.

Principle is OK up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose.

That intelligence capability is enormously important to the United States, to our conduct of foreign policy, to defense matters, to economic matters. And I am a strong supporter of it.

I want to avoid personal attacks, ... I promise not to make fun of your singing.

Everyone knows that you're not really a real man unless you own a gun.

To bring the worst of the worst terrorists inside the United States would be cause for great danger and regret in the years to come. It is recklessness cloaked in righteousness, and would make the American people less safe.

I wake up every morning literally with a smile on my face, grateful for another day I never thought I would see.

If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two or three years... we would not have had the kind of job growth we've had.

I am a deficit hawk.

The Federalist Society has made important contributions to the nation's understanding of our constitutional heritage.

I learned early on that if you don't want your memos to get you in trouble someday, just don't write any.

Let us rid ourselves of the fiction that low oil prices are somehow good for the United States.

Sarah Palin is an attractive candidate, but based on her background, she only was governor for what, two years. I don't think she passed that test.

I had other priorities in the sixties than military service.

Whoever controls the flow of Persian Gulf oil has a stranglehold not only on our economy but also on the other countries of the world as well.

I think President Obama is going to be a one-term president.

It's clearly established in terms of training, provision of bomb-making experts, training of people with respect to chemical and biological warfare capabilities, that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Iraq for training and so forth.

You know, in this business, you don't have any control over what the press says and how they portray things. And that's their prerogative. But I think anybody who looks at it objectively has trouble making the case that somehow this is a bad economy.

I think we may well have some kind of presence there over a period of time... The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.

We've had experiences where the president's been shot, but never had a situation where the vice president shot somebody.

We do know, with absolute certainty, that Saddam Hussein is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon.

Well, we've got a major effort under way to try to educate everybody, to let them know we have a zero tolerance policy where sexual assault is involved.

I think it's fair to say you can't predict a straight line to victory. You know, there'll be good days and bad days along the way.

You wake up every morning with a smile on your face because you've got a new day you never expected to have. And there's a sense of wonderment. Nothing short of magical.

We have no intention of ignoring or appeasing history's latest gang of fanatics trying to murder their way to power.

In Iraq, a ruthless dictator cultivated weapons of mass destruction and the means to deliver them. He gave support to terrorists, had an established relationship with al Qaeda, and his regime is no more.

We know he's been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.

His regime has had high-level contacts with al Qaeda going back a decade and has provided training to al Qaeda terrorists.

We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.

Had the decision belonged to Senator Kerry, Saddam Hussein would still be in power today in Iraq. In fact, Saddam Hussein would almost certainly still be in control of Kuwait.

In his years in Washington, Senator Kerry has been one vote of a hundred in the United States Senate -- and fortunately on matters of national security, he was very often in the minority.

I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session.

I can think of a lot of words to describe Senator Kerry's position on Iraq; consistent is not one of them.

Cheney, Cheney, you can't hide, we charge you with genocide.

I think I was able to survive five heart attacks because I never postponed going to the hospital when something didn't feel right.

And the fact of the matter is there were thousands of people that went through those training camps in Afghanistan. We know they are seeking deadlier weapons -- chemical, biological and nuclear weapons if they can get it.

I can think of a lot of words to describe Senator Kerry's position on Iraq; 'consistent' is not one of them.

Senator Kerry says he sees two Americas. It makes the whole thing mutual -- America sees two John Kerrys.

There comes a time when deceit and defiance must be seen for what they are. At that point, a gathering danger must be directly confronted. At that point, we must show that beyond our resolutions is actual resolve.

We urge all democratic nations and the United Nations to answer the Iraqi Governing Council's call for support for the people of Iraq in making the transition to democracy.

The Iraqi forces are conducting the Mother of all Retreats.

The Senator from Massachusetts has given us ample grounds to doubt the judgment and the attitude he brings to bear on vital issues of national security.

You cannot be driven by the polls. The polls change all the time; they're easily manipulated by whoever wants to ask those poll questions; they go up; they go down.

My own belief is that the way we grow the economy, create jobs, create wealth is in the private sector. The government doesn't do that.

No matter what kind of problem I've run into, there's always been a solution for it. Now, obviously, there will be a point where there aren't any more solutions, and I'll have used up my time. We all do.

It used to be you needed to have a very large sophisticated state before you could even have a nuclear weapon... Now the technology is widespread enough. It doesn't take very many people to be able to cobble together a devastating attack, and all it takes is one.

I'm not apologetic with respect to the policies of the Bush administration. I think we basically got it right.

As I think about the future, I'm back where most people live their lives. Which is, death is not imminent, and that's different.

I -- obviously, I'm not a big fan of President Obama. I think he's been one of our weakest presidents. I just fundamentally disagree with him philosophically.

Westerners know the difference between a talker and the real deal. If Rick Perry wasn't right to be governor of Texas, why should he be president?

I believe that we were not as effective in the second term dealing with this issue of nuclear none proliferation as we had been during the first term when we stripped Libya and Iraq and A.Q. Khan and their capacity to proliferate nuclear technology.

I believe very deeply in the proposition that what we did in Iraq was the right thing to do. It was hard to do. It took a long time. There were significant costs involved.

I think there's no question but what the tail end of the Bush administration, Bush-Cheney administration, that we took steps specifically geared to try and free up the financial sector.