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John McCain Quotes

Total quotes: 48
“I fell in love with my country when I was a prisoner in someone else's.”
— John McCain, McCain's convention speech
Tagged: Patriotism, Prison
“Glory belongs to the act of being constant to something greater than yourself, to a cause, to your principles, to the people on whom you rely, and who rely on you in return. No misfortune, no injury, no humiliation can destroy it.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: glory, Pride
“The most important lesson I learned there was that to sustain my self-respect for a lifetime it would be necessary for me to have the honor of serving something greater than my self-interest.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: Self-Intrest, Life Lessons, Self-Respect, Respect, greater good
“We are taught to understand, correctly, that courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity for action despite our fears.”
— John McCain, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life
Tagged: Courage, Fear, What Is Courage?
“We can fight like hell for our ideas to prevail. But we have to respect each other or at least respect the fact that we need each other.”
— John McCain, It’s time Congress returns to regular order
Tagged: Coming Together, Unity, Respect Difference
“Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: Something Bigger Than Yourself, Meaning of Your Life, purpose
“They told John McCain he could leave if he told them certain things.

'No one would know.'

'I would know. I would know.'”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: Life
“America is the greatest force for good in the history of the world.”
— John McCain
“But I discovered in prison that faith in myself alone, separate from other, more important allegiances, was ultimately no match for the cruelty that human beings could devise when they were entirely unencumbered by respect for the God-given dignity of man. This is the lesson I learned in prison. It is, perhaps, the most important lesson I have ever learned.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: Human Dignity, Lessons from Prison, Prisoner of War
“War is wretched beyond description, and only a fool or a fraud could sentimentalize its cruel reality.”
— John McCain
Tagged: War, Wretched, Fraud, Fool, Sentimentalism
“My father and his father believed the best definition of courage was Admiral Lord Nelson’s advice: 'No captain can do very wrong if he places his ship alongside that of the enemy.'”
— John McCain, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life
Tagged: Courage
“Our society demands that women be treated equally and that we not discriminate against them.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Gender Equality, Equality, discrimination, Misogyny
“The first role of government is to help people who are in crisis or need. That's why we have government.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Government, Crisis
“Whenever America sends its citizens into harm's way, it must do so with eyes wide open.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Military Intervention
“Do not yield. Do not flinch. Stand up. Stand up with our President and fight. We're Americans. We're Americans, and we'll never surrender. They will.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Yield, Flinch, Surrender, Americans
“We have the obligation to use our freedom wisely, to select well from all the choices freedom offers. We can accept or reject the obligation, but if we are to preserve our freedom, our honor, we must choose well.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: Freedom, American Life
“All you've ever asked of your government is to stand on your side and not in your way. And that's what I intend to do: stand on your side and fight for your future.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Government, Future
“It is your character, and your character alone, that will make your life happy or unhappy.”
— John McCain, Character Is Destiny: Inspiring Stories Every Young Person Should Know and Every Adult Should Remember
Tagged: character, Happy, Unhappy
“Although human beings often attempt self-delusion, we cannot forever hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Self-Delusion, Truth, Hiding
“If I took offense at everybody who has said something about me, or disparaged me or something like that—life is too short. You've gotta move on.”
— John McCain, John McCain fights back
Tagged: Taking Offense, Life Is Too Short, Moving On, Disparagement
“Neither party should be defined by pandering to the outer reaches of American politics and the agents of intolerance, whether they be Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton on the left, or Pat Robertson or Jerry Falwell on the right.”
— John McCain
Tagged: intolerance, Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell
“In the real world, as lived and experienced by real people, the demand for human rights and dignity, the longing for liberty and justice and opportunity, the hatred of oppression and corruption and cruelty is reality.”
— John McCain, Opinion | John McCain: Why We Must Support Human Rights
Tagged: Oppression, rights, dignity, Liberty, Justice, Opportunity, Corruption, Cruelty
“Humility makes for more productive politics. If it vanishes entirely, we will tear our society apart.”
— John McCain, John McCain Makes An Appeal For Civility And Humility
Tagged: Humility, Politics, Society, Healthy Democracies
“I believe in evolution. But I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Grand Canyon, Evolution, Sunset, God, Hand of God
“Government should take care of those in America who can't care for themselves. That's a role of government.”
— John McCain, The Times Interviews John McCain
Tagged: Government, Underprivileged
“My father once said 'Some officers get it backwards. They don't understand that we are responsible for our war, not the other way around. That's what forges trust and loyalty.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: strategy, Leadership
“An officer must not confer his responsibilities on the men under his command. They are his alone.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: strategy, Leadership
“If you want politics to be more civil, if you want Congress to argue less and get more done, then show up. Represent.”
— John McCain, John McCain Makes An Appeal For Civility And Humility
Tagged: Politics, American Politcs, Democracy
“Bomb, bomb! Bomb, Iran!”
— John McCain
Tagged: Iran, Bombing
“In prison, I fell in love with my country. I had loved her before then, but like most young people, my affection was little more than a simple appreciation for the comforts and privileges most Americans enjoyed and took for granted. It wasn't until I had lost America for a time that I realized how much I loved her.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: Prison, Love, country, Comfort
“Listen, the joy of my life was the bonds that were forged between me and my fellow POWs. They were wonderful. We fought together. We loved each other. We would tap on the walls to each other. I look back on that experience with a great deal of pride.”
— John McCain, John McCain fights back
Tagged: POWs, Vietnam, Bonds, Pride
“Human beings are still capable of violence and cruelty. We all succumb to sin. But look back at any preceding century or even just a few decades, and you will see cruelty, violence and misery on a scale that is, with few exceptions, unknown today.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Violence, Cruelty, Sin, Progress, Misery
“Our enemies have made clear the danger they pose to our security and to the very essence of our culture...liberty.

Only the most deluded of us could doubt the necessity of this war.

Like all wars, this one will have its ups and downs.

But we must fight. We must.”
— John McCain
Tagged: enemies, Culture, Liberty, War
“Freedom is America’s honor, and all honor comes with obligations.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: America, Freedom
“I hate the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Racial Slurs, Gooks, Hate, Vietnamese
“We are a country with a conscience.”
— John McCain, Sen. John McCain warns Rex Tillerson: 'We are a country with a conscience'
Tagged: country, Conscience
“Only a fool or a fraud talks tough or romantically about war.”
— John McCain
Tagged: Fool, Fraud, War
“I always had the sense that he was special, a man who had set his mind to accomplishing great things, and had ransomed his life to the task.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: Life
“From both my parents, I learned to persevere. But my mother’s extraordinary resilience made her the stronger of the two. I acquired some of her resilience and her felicity, and that inheritance made an enormous difference in my life.”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: Parents, mother, Parental Knowlege
“My father, typically, was undeterred by domestic opposition. 'Some people condemned this as an unwarranted intervention,' he observed, 'but the Communists were all set to move in and take over. People may not love you for being strong when you have to be, but they respect you for it and learn to behave themselves when you are.'”
— John McCain, Faith of My Fathers: A Family Memoir
Tagged: John McCain's Father
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