Ramsey Clark Quotes

• A right is not what someone gives you; it's what no one can take from you.

  Ramsey Clark

  Rights, Libertarian Party, Giving

  1977 In the NewYork Times, 2 Oct.

  48 Copy quote

• The measure of your quality as a public person, as a citizen, is the gap between what you do and what you say.

  Ramsey Clark

  House, Quality, Citizens

  "The International Herald Tribune" (Paris), June 18, 1991.

  52 Copy quote

• We're not a democracy. It's a terrible misunderstandin g and a slander to the idea of democracy to call us that. In reality, we're a plutocracy: a government by the wealthy.

  Ramsey Clark

  Reality, Government, Ideas

  68 Copy quote

• Democracy is just a word. You have to give it meaning. The US is not a democracy. Most Americans do not vote. We haven't had a real choice for a long, long time now. Wealth rules. Corporations rule. The US is a plutocracy - government by wealthy people. Certain people control multinational corporations. You couldn't get elected in the US without lots of money.

  Ramsey Clark

  Money, Real, Government

  53 Copy quote

• The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.

  Ramsey Clark

  Peace, War, World

  27 Copy quote

• People who don't cherish their elderly have forgotten whence they came and whither they go.

  Ramsey Clark

  Relationship, Elderly, People

  19 Copy quote

• Honesty is the best policy in international relations, interpersonal relations, labor, business, education, family and crime control because truth is the only thing that works and the only foundation on which lasting relations can build.

  Ramsey Clark

  Honesty, Foundation, Business Education

  17 Copy quote

• Islam is the only religion that gives dignity to the poor.

  Ramsey Clark

  Giving, Islam, Dignity

  22 Copy quote

• The United States is not nearly so concerned that its acts be kept secret from its intended victims as it is that the American people not know of them.

  Ramsey Clark

  People, Secret, United States

  5 Copy quote

• There are few better measures of the concern a society has for its individual members and its own well being than the way it handles criminals.

  Ramsey Clark

  Criminals, Way, Prison

  Keynote address to American Correctional Association conference, Miami Beach, Fla., Aug. 1967

  16 Copy quote

• Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy.

  Ramsey Clark

  Democracy, Secrecy, Diminish

  11 Copy quote

• This country of ours has committed the most serious act of aggression in its history by engaging in a war of aggression without a declaration of war by Congress.

  Ramsey Clark

  Country, War, Serious

  15 Copy quote

• Our emotions may cry for vengeance in the wake of a horrible crime, but we know that killing the criminal will not undo the crime, will not prevent similar crimes by others, does not benefit the victim, destroys human life and brutalizes society. If we are to still violence, we must cherish life. Executions cheapen life.

  Ramsey Clark

  Violence, Execution, Criminals

  11 Copy quote

• Most faults are not in our Constitution, but in ourselves.

  Ramsey Clark

  Democracy, Faults, Constitution

  The Washington Post, November 12, 1970.

  10 Copy quote

• Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?

  Ramsey Clark

  Law, Police, Protect

  18 Copy quote

• How dare Americans allow their government to cause such misery [in the world].

  Ramsey Clark

  Government, World, Causes

  4 Copy quote

• Impeachment appears six times in the U.S. Constitution. The Founders weren't concerned with anything more than with impeachment because they had lived under King George III and had in 1776 accused the king of all the things that George W. Bush wants to do: Usurpation of the power of the people; Being above the law; Criminal abuse of authority.

  Ramsey Clark

  Kings, Law, People

  20 Copy quote

• If Rosa Parks had not refused to move to the back of the bus, you and I might never have heard of Dr. Martin Luther King.

  Ramsey Clark

  Kings, Moving, Drs

  11 Copy quote

• A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the jungle.

  Ramsey Clark

  Heart, Savages, Death Penalty

  Ramsey Clark (1971). “Crime in America”

  15 Copy quote

• Our history shows that the death penalty has been unjustly imposed, innocents have been killed by the state, effective rehabilitation has been impaired, judicial administration has suffered. It is the poor, the sick, the ignorant, the powerless, and the hated who are executed.

  Ramsey Clark

  Sick, Ignorant, Rehabilitation

  13 Copy quote

• Violence is the ultimate human degradation.

  Ramsey Clark

  Degradation, Violence, Humans

  12 Copy quote

• Turbulence is life force. It is opportunity. Let's love turbulence and use it for change.

  Ramsey Clark

  Change, Opportunity, Use

  32 Copy quote

• Impeachment is the direct constitutional means for removing a President, Vice President or other civil officers of the United States who has acted or threatened acts that are serious offenses against the Constitution, its system of government, or the rule of law, or that are conventional crimes of such a serious nature that they would injure the Presidency if there was no removal.

  Ramsey Clark

  Mean, Government, Law

  11 Copy quote

• It has never happened in history that a nation that has won a war has been held accountable for atrocities committed in preparing for and waging that war. We intend to make this one different. What took place was the use of technological material to destroy a defenseless country. From 125,000 to 300,000 people were killed... We recognize our role in history is to bring the transgressors to justice.

  Ramsey Clark

  Country, War, Atrocities Committed

  4 Copy quote

• The U.S. has in its stockpiles more nuclear bombs, chemical and biological weapons, more aircraft, rockets and delivery systems in number and sophistication than the rest of the world combined. Included are twenty commissioned Trident II nuclear submarines any one of which could destroy Europe.

  Ramsey Clark

  Europe, Numbers, Nuclear

  5 Copy quote

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