Bernie Sanders Quotes

Quotes by and about Bernie Sanders

(Continued from his main entry on the site.)

Sanders: "What I don't want campaigns to be about is soap operas and personal attacks."

Sanders: "I think that the media spends far too much time [on politicians' personalities]."

Sanders: "Yes, we want people to be nice people, we sure do. But you gotta look at the issues that people stand for."

Sanders: "[Politics should not be] a personality contest. [I will] give you an example. George W. Bush ... happens to be a very nice guy. He's funny, I don't think he's mean-spirited. ... He was one of the worst presidents in the history of America. Sometimes nice people do terrible, terrible things. And sometimes people who are not so nice - LBJ, my God, he was brutish in many ways, right? Yet he was one of the most progressive presidents in history."

The Guardian: "Then as now ... Sanders had a secret disdain for what he believed were doctrinaire academics who failed to ground their ideas in the real world."

New York Times: "Few would describe Sanders's personality as 'winning' in the classic politician's sense. ... Sanders dispatches ... glad-handing chores with the visible joy of someone cleaning a litter box."

New York Times: "He makes no great effort to 'connect' emotionally in the manner that politicians strive for these days, and he probably doesn't 'feel your pain' either. ... It's not that Sanders is against connecting, or feeling your pain, but [to him] the process seems needlessly passive and unproductive."

New York Times: "Sanders crinkles his face whenever a conversation veers too long from this kind of 'important stuff' and into the 'silly stuff,' like clothes and style. 'I do not like personality profiles,' Sanders told me during our first conversation."

Luke Albee [former chief of staff:] "He has no hobbies. He works. He doesn't take time off. Bernie doesn't even eat lunch. The idea of building a fire and reading a book and going on vacation, that's not something he does."

Richard Sugarman [long-time friend:] "Does he have an 'off' mode? Not really."

The Guardian: "The senator's longtime friend - and, until 2012, his chief of staff - recently tried to persuade Sanders to engage with the work of Thomas Piketty, the French economist whose research into wealth inequality has received widespread acclaim. Sanders rolled his eyes and replied: 'I got 30 seconds.'"

Boston Globe: "[Sanders] has avoided telling personal anecdotes detailing much about himself in the nearly three and half decades since he [entered politics]."

New York Magazine: "Bernie is not known for letting his hair down. 'The guy works 100 hours a week. Maybe he hit a golf ball at the driving range once or twice. That's his fun for the year,' says a former political associate."

Garrison Nelson: "Bernie is not going to win a lot of 'whom would you rather live on a desert island with' contests."

Jim Rader: "I once asked him what he meant by calling himself a 'socialist,' and he referred to an article that was ... Albert Einstein's 'Why Socialism?'"

The Observer: "He is not outwardly charming; he rarely glad-hands and his speeches are often mirthless."

New York Times: "He is no pleaser or jokester by anyone's prototype."