John Ashcroft famous quotes

We have to think outside the box, inside the Constitution, find ways to do things that will elevate our security, reduce the risk of the incidence of terrorist attack
-- John Ashcroft

#Thinking #Risk #Way

I feel the best way to ensure Americans' freedom is to tighten restrictions on that freedom in any way possible. Only through wiretaps, illegal searches and seizures, unfettered government intrusion, a controlled media and a complete crackdown on free speech can we ensure the liberties of all people.
-- John Ashcroft

#Stupid #Government #Media

There is no priority higher than the prevention of terrorism
-- John Ashcroft

#Priorities #Prevention #Terrorism

Just as the First and Fourth Amendment secure individual rights of speech and security respectively, the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers.
-- John Ashcroft

#Father #Gun #Views

The worst mistake a boss can make is not to say 'well done'.
-- John Ashcroft

#Business #Mistake #Boss

To those who scare peace loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics aid terrorists for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends.
-- John Ashcroft

#America #People #Giving

Prior to September 11, we thought the world beyond our shores was one world of risk and the world in our continent was another world of risk
-- John Ashcroft

#Risk #September 11 #World

Only God, no other kings!
-- John Ashcroft

#Kings #Liberty

I think all we should legislate is morality.
-- John Ashcroft

#Thinking #Morality #Should

The way the terrorist is trained to operate, especially the suicide terrorists, makes punishment and the threat of punishment far less valuable to those who would prevent the crime
-- John Ashcroft

#Suicide #Punishment #Way

The Internet provides very serious challenges to our ability to keep from children the kinds of things that are destructive to them
-- John Ashcroft

#Children #Challenges #Serious

What we learned on September 11 is that the unthinkable is now thinkable in the world
-- John Ashcroft

#September 11 #World #Unthinkable

Reasonable regulations regarding the ownership of weapons are appropriate
-- John Ashcroft

#Weapons #Regulation #Ownership

The FBI has long been a part of the security for the nation's banks because bank robberies have been a priority
-- John Ashcroft

#Long #Priorities #Fbi

We've got to understand that the whole nature of the way American democracy guards its freedom has been changed
-- John Ashcroft

#Democracy #Way #Changed

We need to strengthen our analytic capacity in Washington, we need to centralize the anti-terrorism effort
-- John Ashcroft

#Effort #Needs #Terrorism

Civilized people - Muslims, Christians and Jews - all understand that the source of freedom and human dignity is the Creator.
-- John Ashcroft

#Christian #People #Dignity

By tearing down the wall between law enforcement and the intelligence community, we have been able to share information in a way that was virtually impossible before the Patriot Act.
-- John Ashcroft

#Wall #Law #Community

Frankly, the president, during the first opportunity I had to be in a Cabinet meeting, before we started the meeting, he said, Folks, before we begin this meeting, I'm going to call on General Ashcroft and ask him invite the wisdom and presence of God in what we do. And I thought to myself how ashamed I'd been that so many times in my life I had entered upon great important tasks and I had cheated myself and those that I had served of a blessing.
-- John Ashcroft

#Blessing #Opportunity #Scary

The goal of terror is not traditional territorial enlargement; rather the war target of the terrorist is the dismemberment of the will of the community it terrorizes.
-- John Ashcroft

#War #Goal #Community

Simply put, international terrorism made international cooperation mandatory rather than elective. Collective security has become the only real security against the hydra-headed monster of international terror.
-- John Ashcroft

#Real #Monsters #Hydra

How sad, that the group with the most access to the truth chose in several strategic instances to look the other way.
-- John Ashcroft

#Groups #Looks #Way

Do not allow your sorrow or your rage to become hostility toward people on the basis of their ethnicity or their religious views. That is unacceptable; it is out of bounds, and if you break the law, we will prosecute you for it.
-- John Ashcroft

#Religious #Views #Ethnicity

To me, failure is not fatal unless you quit; getting knocked down is not embarrassing unless you allow it to keep you down.
-- John Ashcroft

#Quitting #Embarrassing #Knocked Down

A trustee has a responsibility to guard the assets of others with a higher degree of care than he does his own.
-- John Ashcroft

#Responsibility #Degrees #Doe

Sometimes the act of walking in the face of the elements helps us come to grips with reality. Or it simply exhausts us to the point of seeing the futility of resisting reality and the futility of denial.
-- John Ashcroft

#Reality #Elements #Denial

A calculated, malignant, devastating evil has arisen in our world, ... Civilization cannot ignore the wrongs that have been done. America will not tolerate their being repeated. Justice has a new mission, a new calling against an old evil.
-- John Ashcroft

#Our World #Civilization #America

The state's interest in effective crime-fighting should never vitiate the citizens' Bill of Rights.
-- John Ashcroft

#Fighting #Rights #Citizens

I decided this early on at Justice: if the traditional way was the most effective way of doing something, then we'd maintain it. But if it was not functioning at optimum levels, we would be doing the country a disservice by continuing to do things "like we've always done them."
-- John Ashcroft

#Country #Justice #Would Be

Every medium by which people communicate can be subject to exploitation by those with illegal intentions. Nevertheless, this is no reason to hand Big Brother the keys to unlock our e-mail diaries, open our ATM records, read our medical records, or translate our international communications.
-- John Ashcroft

#Brother #Communication #Keys

The liberties and freedoms which we hold dear and we recognize and cherish and respect guide the way we gather information in the United States
-- John Ashcroft

#Liberty #United States #Information

This view of the text comports with the all but unanimous understanding of the Founding Fathers....
-- John Ashcroft

#Father #Views #Understanding

[Ashcroft vowed to] spare no effort to preserve the rights of all our citizens to pledge allegiance to the American flag.
-- John Ashcroft

#Rights #Effort #Scary

We must embrace the power of faith, but we must never confuse politics and piety. For me, may I say that it is against my religion to impose my religion.
-- John Ashcroft

#Scary #May #Embrace

If America is to be great in the future, it will be if we understand that our source is not civic and temporal, but our source is godly and eternal.
-- John Ashcroft

#Godly #America #Scary

[The war on terrorism isn't a religious war, but] a defense of our right to make moral choices, to seek fellowship with God that is chosen and not commanded.
-- John Ashcroft

#Religious #War #Scary

We are a nation called to defend freedom - a tradition that is not a grant of any government or document, but is an endowment from God.
-- John Ashcroft

#Government #Scary #Tradition

For the first time in a long time, our leaders in Washington understand what Americans of all religious backgrounds have long held to be true: through faith, all things are possible.
-- John Ashcroft

#Religious #Long #Leader

Any citizen who's offended ... can leave the service.
-- John Ashcroft

#Scary #Citizens #Offended

The new rule says that the FBI has the right to go to public places on the same terms and conditions as other members of the public for counter-terrorism purposes.
-- John Ashcroft

#Purpose #Terrorism #Members

We must not descend to the level of those who perpetrated Tuesday's violence by targeting individuals based on their race, their religion, or their national origin. Such reports of violence and threats are in direct opposition to the very principles and laws of the United States and will not be tolerated.
-- John Ashcroft

#Powerful #Law #Race

Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus.
-- John Ashcroft

#Jesus #Kings #Character

The FBI. is a massive culture. It's been a culture that served America well, and it's been focused on prosecution. But what we need in terms of terrorism is prevention.
-- John Ashcroft

#America #Needs #Culture

We're going to protect and honor the Constitution, and I don't have the authority to set it aside.... If I had the authority to set it aside, this would be a dangerous government, and I wouldn't respect it.
-- John Ashcroft

#Government #Scary #Honor

Christianity is a faith in which God sent his Son to die for you.
-- John Ashcroft

#Son #Christianity

The Patriot Act allows and provides a basis for an exchange of information.
-- John Ashcroft

#Information #Patriot #Patriot Act

What did John Ashcroft say about moderates, he said, quote, there are two things you find in the middle of the road, a moderate and a dead skunk and I don't want to be either,
-- John Ashcroft

#Two #Want #Middle

The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved,
-- John Ashcroft

#Safety #Crime #Terror

Nothing that we have authorized conflicts with any law regarding privacy or any provision of the constitution.
-- John Ashcroft

#Law #Privacy #Constitution

People who commit crimes should be responsible for those crimes. It doesn't matter whether they're priests or ministers or atheists.
-- John Ashcroft

#Atheist #People #Matter

It doesn't help to wait until something happens and then prosecute the offenders, especially if it's the idea of the offender to extinguish himself in the commission of the crime.
-- John Ashcroft

#Ideas #Waiting #Helping

If necessity is the mother of invention, it's the father of cooperation. And we're cooperating like never before.
-- John Ashcroft

#Mother #Father #Cooperation

Nothing remains great without a capacity to change and to accommodate the conditions of a changing world.
-- John Ashcroft

#World #Capacity #Remains

I don't play full court anymore. I just play half-court.
-- John Ashcroft

#Play #Half #Court

Agents need to be free to pursue investigations in ways that they haven't. There have been restraints that a reformed FBI needs to make sure we don't impose.
-- John Ashcroft

#Needs #Agents #Way

Doing what is right in the face of adversity is not always easy or popular. Critics may assail you, but the critics don't always realize what they don't know or don't understand, because they don't have access to all the information.
-- John Ashcroft

#Adversity #May #Information

All of us want to have meaning in our lives and want to feel like we're doing something that makes a difference. I believe we're doing that in the Justice Department.
-- John Ashcroft

#Believe #Differences #Justice

An FBI agent ought to be able to surf the net and look for sites that instruct people how to make bombs.
-- John Ashcroft

#People #Surfing #Able

In this new war, our enemy's platoons infiltrate our borders, quietly blending in with visiting tourists, students, and workers. They move unnoticed through our cities, neighborhoods, and public spaces. They wear no uniforms. Their camouflage is not forest green, but rather it is the color of common street clothing. Their tactics rely on evading recognition at the border and escaping detection within the United States. Their terrorist mission is to defeat America, destroy our values and kill innocent people.
-- John Ashcroft

#War #Moving #America