Ralph Nader

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.

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

Your best teacher is your last mistake.

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.

This (George W. Bush’s) administration is not sympathetic to corporations, it is indentured to corporations.

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

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

Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem. We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. Over 500,000 people are in our jails who are nonviolent drug users.

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

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

Once you don’t vote your ideals… that has serious undermining affects. It erodes the moral basis of our democracy.

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

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

Like sex in Victorian England, the reality of Big Business today is our big dirty secret.

Power has to be insecure to be responsive.

Our founders did not oust George III in order for us to crown Richard I.

Sanctions against polluters are feeble and out of date, and are rarely invoked.

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

There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When strangers start acting like neighbors… communities are reinvigorated.

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

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.