Quotes by Rick Perry

Abstinence works, I know it from my own personal life, abstinence works.

If you cheat on your wife, you'll cheat on your business partner.

Audie Murphy remains a shining example for anyone who believes in the importance of service, for generations now and into the future.

Debates are set up for nothing more than to tear down the candidates. It's pretty hard to be able to sit and lay out your ideas and your concepts with a one-minute response.

Government that is open and honest will always be able to withstand the light of day.

It's... time to introduce scholarship programs that give students a choice, especially those who are locked into low-performing schools.

You don't want to ruin a kid's life for having a joint.

Our best days are in front of us. We can reform those entitlements, we can change that corporate tax code and lower it. We can put America back on track on a growth level and a growth rate that we've never seen in the history of this country.

You have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking.

Great leaders have an ability, a characteristic of analyzing very good talent, and empowering that talent.

Religious freedom does not mean freedom from religion.

We should also give students more flexibility in the courses they take in high school to prepare them for whatever their goals may be, without sacrificing our rigorous academic standards.

As long as it's not me, I'll be cool.

We need men and women with Christian values who know in their souls that America was providentially created and that for the last 200-plus years, when we've gone to God in prayer and asked for guidance, wisdom and strength, God has answered.

The economy is very different in the world that we're living in. And I think Americans are looking for executive leadership that actually has some experience of creating jobs.

I got a feeling that after six years of disappointment, of mediocrity and decline, a slow course correction is not what voters are going to be looking for in 2016.

I don't think we've ever had a president who has more disdain for Washington than Barack Obama does, and he does things with executive orders or rules that you don't even see.

America does not need to be worried with bailing out a European country that has made irresponsible expenditures, and then all of a sudden, throws their hands up and say, Oh, please come save us. That is not our responsibility in the United States of America.

If and when we get back to that solid, biblically and constitutionally based foundation in this country, America will be great -- and America will be great again because we give people freedom, we dissolve power out of Washington.

It takes balls to execute an innocent man.

Every life is precious.

Ted Cruz will point Americans back to the principles established by our Constitution enabling you to live free.

It is time to let America be America again. To return freedom to the people. To stand on our founding principles and reject the cynical politics of the Nanny State.

There is evil prowling in the world -- it shows up in our movies, video games and online fascinations, and finds its way into vulnerable hearts and minds.

My quarrel is not with the legitimate role of government but with the unlimited role of government.

The most important thing for us is to save lives.

Although Mr. Trump talks an interesting and entertaining game, rarely do I hear him lay out specifics.

Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said here is the fact. Galileo got outvoted for a spell.

I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution.

The great lesson of history for us is that strength and resolve bring peace and order, and weakness and vacillation invite chaos and conflict.

We find ourselves in what I consider to be the most challenging, difficult, threatening time since World War II because of this War on Terror.

We don't have to apologize for American exceptionalism or western values.

When I make a vow to God, then I would suggest to you that's even stronger than a handshake in Texas.

I'll work every day to try to make Washington, D.C., as inconsequential in your life as I can.

My policy will be to detain and deport every illegal alien who is apprehended in this country. And we'll do it with an expedited hearing process so that millions of illegal aliens are not released into the general population with some hearing date down the road.

Yeah, that's a cool name, but it's a monstrous intrusion into our affairs.

Who knew, when you were watching the Verizon ad and the guy said, 'Can you hear me now,' that was really just a mic check for the Obama administration.

We cannot afford four more years of this misguided socialist policies from President Obama and his administration.

Aggies have a really interesting way of admitting defeat. We've never been outscored. We just ran out of time.

I know for a fact that Ted Cruz every day uses two checklists -- to guide him through his personal and professional life -- and that is the Bible and the U.S. Constitution.

Eliminate agencies that perform redundant functions... Get rid of the Department of Commerce, the Department of Education, the Department of Energy.

I don't want to be the president of the United States. I do want to work with the governors across the country to make the states more pivotal, more powerful, as they should be.

I think every program needs to stand the sunshine of righteous scrutiny. Whether it's Social Security, whether it's Medicaid, whether it's Medicare.

Four semesters of organic chemistry made a pilot out of me.

Guns require a finger to pull the trigger.

I am going to give the American people a huge helping of unbridled truth: that we can't continue to spend what we are spending, that we can't avoid entitlement reform because we are afraid of third rail politics.

There's places where a secure fence will work, and that strategic type fencing will work. But the idea that people can easily just stand up and say, oh, let's build a fence and be done with it, wipe our hands, it's going to secure the border, that's not reality.

We are a resilient country. We've been through a Civil War; we've been through two World Wars. We've been through a Great Depression; we even made it through Jimmy Carter! We will make it through the Obama years!

We will reverse course on the heavy hand of regulation, discarding Dodd-Frank and any other regulations that advance a political agenda at the expense of jobs and investment on Main Street.

I mean I hate to be conspiratorial, but I mean how do you move that many people from Central America across Mexico and then into the United States without there being a fairly coordinated effort?

Juarez is reported to be the most dangerous city in America.

From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented.

You can always follow me on Tweeter.

If you rent a U-Haul to move your company, it costs twice as much to go from San Francisco to Austin than the other way around, because you can't find enough trucks to leave the Golden State.

There is no one who's gonna be sitting on that stage who has the record of job creation I have. There's one in particular who's created jobs all around the world. While he was the governor of Massachusetts he didn't create many jobs.

Now, I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out because his company Bain Capital and all of the jobs that they killed I'm sure he was worried he would run out of pink slips.

When you have a clearly open homosexual scout leader, the scouts are going to talk about it. And they're not there to learn about that. They're there to learn about what it means to be loyal and trustworthy and thrifty.

The Obama administration is an affront to every freedom-loving American,and a threat to every private sector job in this country.

It's time to bring tough medicine to Washington. No longer will policy be set by K Street, it will be dictated by Main Street.

Let's make what Americans buy. Buy what Americans make. And sell it to the world.

I come by my conservatism authentically, not by convenience. And I offer the American people a new direction.

I believe in America. I believe in her purpose and her promise. I believe her best days have not yet been lived. I believe her greatest deeds are reserved for the generations to come.

In America, the people are not subjects of government, the government is subject to the people.

We do not have to accept our current circumstances. We will change them. We are Americans. That's what we do.

We stand up and proudly proclaim that Washington is not our caretaker and we reject a state, in Margaret Thatcher's words, a state that takes too much from us to do too much for us.

It's time to believe again in the potential of private enterprise set free from the shackles of over-bearing federal government.

I know something. America is not broken, Washington, D.C. is broken.

Spreading the wealth punishes success while setting America on course for a greater dependency on government.

I learned that not everyone values life like we do in America, or the rights that are endowed to every human being by a loving God.

Being the Republican front-runner was three of the most exciting hours of my entire life. I've come to grips with it, and the only lasting effect is that I refuse to go on a stage that has more than one podium on it.

Armed and law-abiding citizens are a greater deterrent to violent crime than 1,000 laws passed by Congress.

I happily cling to my guns and my God, even if President Obama thinks that that is a simpleminded thing in his elitist heart.

Admit it America -- 2008 was our national 'oops' moment!

Our view is that individuals and families can govern their lives better than bureaucrats.

We know there is no such thing as freedom without the risk of failure.

We believe in government involvement that leads to independence: good schools, quality roads and the best health care.

Here is what we know after more than a decade of Republican rule: Texas works. Even 'The New York Times' let it slip into its pages that, 'Texas is the future.'

And I have a message for the liberals and the defenders of the status quo: we're just getting started.

The fact is there is forgiveness for those who seek God. And I believe in the power of redemption.

I've always believed the mission is greater than the man.

I have no question that Newt Gingrich has the heart of a conservative reformer, the ability to rally and captivate the conservative movement.

I don't think Obama understands basic economics. Not economics that work. He may understand some theory that someone in Princeton sat and dreamed up, but it's not working.