Hillary Clinton Thinking Quotations

You know, I think of the global economy as an inverted triangle, resting on the shoulders of the American consumer. And if the American consumer cannot have enough disposable income in order to maintain a standard of living that creates more opportunities generation after generation, that's bad for everybody.

There is no doubt that America remains the premier political, economic, military power in the world, and I both expect and count on it remaining so, because I think that's certainly in our best interest but also the best interests of the world.

I think the world would be a lot better off if more people were to define themselves in terms of their own standards and values and not what other people said or thought about them.

There's a certain consistency to who I am and what I do, and I think people have finally said, 'Well, you know, I kinda get her now.' I've actually had people say that to me.

I think we have to face the reality that in a society where there is a legitimate threat of terrorism, not being able to see one's face, not being able to have some sense of communication in that way, is for many societies a challenge.

Probably my worst quality is that I get very passionate about what I think is right.

I think that you can disagree with people and debate over their positions with issues without engaging in the politics of personal destruction.

Well I think in a marriage you have to be honest and ask yourself, you know, what is my role? What is my responsibility?

We can't go to people who have lost their job at GM and say, 'Oh, by the way, we are going to pay money to build a road here or inoculate children there,' unless we can demonstrate that it is in America's interest. I happen to think it is.

I think that trade is an important issue. Of course, we are 5 percent of the world's population; we have to trade with the other 95 percent. And we need to have smart, fair trade deals.

I think I will serve as secretary of state as my last public position.

We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society.

I certainly think the free-market has failed.

You may not agree with a woman, but to criticize her appearance — as opposed to her ideas or actions — isn't doing anyone any favors, least of all you. Insulting a woman's looks when they have nothing to do with the issue at hand implies a lack of comprehension on your part, an inability to engage in high-level thinking. You may think she's ugly, but everyone else thinks you're an idiot.

I think cyber security, cyber warfare will be one of the biggest challenges facing the next president, because clearly we're facing at this point two different kinds of adversaries. There are the independent hacking groups that do it mostly for commercial reasons to try to steal information that they can use to make money.

I think that I have been clear that demonizing and demagoguing about Muslims is not only offensive it is dangerous and it plays into ISIS's hands.

Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time and I think a marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.

I think we can take back Mosul, and then we can move on into Syria and take back Raqqa.

In America, we trade more energy with our neighbors than we trade with the rest of the world combined. And I do want us to have an electric grid, an energy system that crosses borders. I think that would be a great benefit to us.

The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I think it's a good rule for politics, too.

I don't think it was progressive to vote to give gun makers and sellers immunity. I don't think it was progressive to vote against Ted Kennedy's immigration reform.

You know, I'm going to start thanking the woman who cleans the restroom in the building I work in. I'm going to start thinking of her as a human being.

I'm just am amazed that he seems to think the Iraqi government and our allies and everybody else launched the attack on Mosul for this election [2016].

I just think that giving a child a chance and sharing what you have with a child is one of the greatest gifts you can give yourself, as well as a child.

What I'm concerned about is the views of many Democrats who know their states, who know how hard it is to win a general election. And it also will push whoever the nominee is into the spotlight. I've been vetted. There's hardly anything you don't know about me. And I think it's fair to say that whoever is in that position, Senator Bernie Sanders or anyone else who might have run, will face the most withering onslaught.

It’s always surprising to me how many young women think they have to be perfect. I rarely meet a young man who doesn’t think he already is.

At the risk of appearing predictable, the Bible was and remains the biggest influence on my thinking. I was raised reading it, memorizing passages from it and being guided by it. I still find it a source of wisdom, comfort and encouragement.

You're not always going to make the right decisions, but you have to be guided by what you think is important.

I think it's been unfortunate, but it's happened, that since the Great Recession, the gains have all gone to the top. And we need to reverse that.

I'm one of those people who thinks that changing one's hair is the only part of the body that you can change at will.

I think that if you live long enough, you realize that so much of what happens in life is out of your control, but how you respond to it is in your control. That's what I try to remember.

You want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not secretary of state; I am. If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I am not going to be channeling my husband.

I think you know by now that I've been called many things by many people. Quitter is not one of them.

I think it's only fair that Americans take into account who can keep them safe. Who has the best ideas for defeating ISIS. And protecting us here at home. I think I have laid out what I believe would work.

I think we're going to have to take a hard look about what more we can do to prevent this kind of lone wolf attack.

I think what President [Barack] Obama has done is to chart a steady course. When I was there, the first four years we had a lot of cleanup to do. We inherited a lot of bad feelings from the [George W.] Bush administration, and much of what I spent my time doing was traveling around the world reassuring friends and allies.

How do we create jobs for so many Americans who are feeling pushed out, not just left out, pushed out of the modern economy. Obviously it's skills and education. But it's also jobs. So if I could do anything it would be to take this moment in time that we've got when, yes, our recovery is better, we've had steadier growth, I don't think President [Barack] Obama frankly gets the credit he deserves for the kind of steady hand that he and his advisers apply to moving through that really dangerous period.

I think it's important to look at what we need to do to get the economy going again. That's why I said new jobs with rising incomes, investments, not in more tax cuts that would add $5 trillion to the debt.

I think science is real.And I think it's important that we grip this and deal with it, both at home and abroad.

I think people need to remember what the situation was when President [Barack] Obama came into office.

I think we need to invest more in America.

I think it's important for people to say look, what does each party and each candidate have to offer for you. If you want a better future that is going to be reliant on making smart economic policies, compare my husband's eight years with Ronald Reagan's eight years. 23 million new jobs, more than seven million people lifted out of poverty.

I want to - on behalf of myself, and I think on behalf of a majority of the American people, say that, you know, our word is good.

I think we have to take a look at corporate law. We have to take a look at the incentives that we can perhaps use to encourage more longer term.

I think there were bad actors in the government and bad actors in the finance, mortgage, markets industries that need to be called out and held accountable.

I think Americans have every reason to be worried about ISIS and the network of terrorist groups, because they have proven to be sophisticated and effective in wreaking violence and murder in many parts of the world, including in San Bernardino with their somehow connected radicalization of that couple there.

I think if you had a capital-gains system where the long, patient capital would actually be rewarded, nanosecond capital turning would not be.

I think there's a lot we could do that maybe would give a little more decision space to CEOs, to shareholders who want to hold for the long term, to investors who want to be part of the long term, that they would maybe have a little more room to withstand the pressure that is otherwise coming down on them.

The Republicans can't go after Donald Trump where I think he needs to be criticized.

How do we prevent attacks? How do we protect our people?I think we've got to have an intelligence surge, where we are looking for every scrap of information.

I have a difference with Senator [Bernie] Sanders, who promises free college, which, if you look at the fine print, depends really on governors coming up with a lot of the money, which I don't think is a particularly wise bet. And I have a plan to help people pay down their student debt, because I want to unleash the entrepreneurial energy that young people have.

I will take responsibility for any impression or anything I've ever done that people have legitimate questions about. But I think that it's fair to say there's been a concerted effort to convince people like that young man of something, nobody's quite sure what, but of something.

I think there are a number of issues that we should be addressing. I have put forth a plan to defeat ISIS.

If Donald Trump's main claim to be president of the United States is your business, then I think we should talk about that.

I think science is real.

I think that for most of our history, there was a nuanced reading of the Second Amendment until the decision by the late Justice [Antoine] Scalia and there was no argument until then that localities and states and the federal government had a right, as we do with every amendment, to impose reasonable regulation.

I think that's why I'm so well-suited to this time, because I think the values reflect really profound American values, and I think my agenda would be the best way to really get Americans once again to feel more confident and more optimistic about our future and deliver results, which I think is what it's about.

It plays right into the hands of ISIS. And that's why Americans need to know that Donald Trump's words are being used in recruitment videos that ISIS is putting out. I think that is a very serious problem.

I think you have to take the man and say to yourself, [Donald Trump] is someone who wants to occupy the Oval Office, where Franklin Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and people who were our president, and I don't think it's just a woman's issue. I think it's an issue that should be of concern to all Americans.

I think the chair`s job is to be fair and I think the job of all of the vice chairs is to make sure that happens. And we have really robust conversations about what balance is, and it`s not easy.

When you have three out of the four largest banks in America today, bigger than they were - significantly bigger than when we bailed them out because they were too big to fail, I think if Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, a good Republican by the way, what he would say is: Break them up; they are too powerful economically; they are too powerful politically.

In fact, is beginning to use a lot of the language and phraseology that we have used. In fact, I think I saw Hillary Clinton TV ad, and I thought it was me.

I think we should be talk about what we want to do for the country. But if we're going to get into labels, I don't think it was particularly progressive to vote against the Brady Bill five times.

I do want people to know that, and I think it's important for everybody to understand I have a record, I have stood firm and I will be the person who prevents them from ever wrecking the economy again.

I think what the president [Barack Obama] understands, and what he's trying to do, is that we have to support the Arab and Kurdish fighters on the ground who are actually doing the fighting.

I am laying out a specific agenda that will make more progress, get more jobs with rising incomes, get us to universal health care coverage, get us to universal pre-k, paid family leave and the other elements of what I think will build a strong economy, that will ensure Americans keep making progress. That's what I'm offering and that's what I will do as president.

There is no nation on the planet better able to adapt to this change than our nation. We must able to work collaboratively with others. We must anticipate these threats before they happen. This is the new sort of challenge, the new sort of threat that does, in fact, require new thinking, fresh approaches and new leadership.

I think that we have to look at ISIS as the leading threat of an international terror network. It cannot be contained, it must be defeated.

Historically, it is important to try to understand your adversary in order to figure out how they are thinking, what they will be doing, how they will react.

I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and for my personal e-mails than two. I did it for convenience and I now looking back think that it might have been smarter to have those two devices from the very beginning.

No one wants their personal emails made public, and I think most people understand that and respect that privacy.

I meet people who can't get healthcare for their families, people who are just distressed over what is happening in our country. So when somebody asks me, "How do you get up?" it really triggered in me the feeling that that's what I want us all to think about each other. How do we get up? How do we pull on our shoes, go out and deal with the problems America faces. That's what I intend to do as president.

I have the experience we need to make the changes we want and I think that's a winning case.

It cannot be an American fight. And I think what the president [Barack Obama] has consistently said - which I agree with - is that we will support those who take the fight to ISIS. That is why we have troops in Iraq that are helping to train and build back up the Iraqi military, why we have special operators in Syria working with the Kurds and Arabs, so that we can be supportive.

Yet again, the family of a young black man is grieving a life cut short. Yet again, the streets of an American city are marred by violence. What we have seen in Baltimore should, indeed I think does, tear at our soul.

I believe that America has the opportunity to once again live by our values, live up to our values in the 21st century, but I think that America can only do that if Americans can succeed. And there are lots of reasons why Americans today are feeling left out and left behind.

I think many people are not seeing the change. They`re really upset with the current situation. We haven`t seen a major American city go up like this in quite some time.

I don't think that the United States has the bulk of the responsibility. I really put that on [Bashar] Assad and on the Iraqis and on the region itself.

I have said the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. But I think if we're ever going to really tackle the problems posed by jihadi extreme terrorism, we need to understand it and realize that it has antecedents to what happened in Iraq and we have to continue to be vigilant about it.

I don't think we're at war with Islam. I don't think we're at war with all Muslims. I think we're at war with jihadists.

I think Barack Obama had the right idea [on negotiations with enemies], and the bottom line is that of course there have to be conditions. But, of course it doesn't do us any good to not talk with our adversaries.

I think there's where we can enlist the veterans service organizations, the veterans of America, because, yes, let's fix the V.A., but we will never let it be privatized, and that is a promise.

I think that the coalition that President [Barack] Obama put together to win twice is a coalition that I can put together and add to.

I agree completely with Secretary Colin Powell, who said today this is an absurdity. And so I think the American people will know it's an absurdity. I have absolutely no concerns about it whatsoever.

I agree with the secretary [Hillary Clinton] that I think what has to happen - and let me just mention what King Abdullah of Jordan said. I think he hit the nail on the head.

I think we've got to do more to stop foreign fighters, foreign funding and take ISIS on online, as well as doing everything necessary to keep us safe at home.

I called for a consumer protection financial bureau before it was created. And I think the best evidence that the Wall Street people at least know where I stand and where I have always stood is because they are trying to beat me in this primary.

I think our great task is to make certain that our young men and women in the military do not get sucked into never- ending, perpetual warfare within the quagmire of Syria and Iraq. And I will do my very best to make sure that that doesn't happen.

I don't think you could find any person in political life today who has been subjected to more attacks and had more money spent against her by special interests, among whom you have named a few, than I.

I think what Secretary Ash Carter is seeing, and I'm glad he is, is that we got to get NATO back working for the common defense. We've got to do more to support our partners in NATO, and we have to send a very clear message to Putin that this kind of belligerence, that this kind of testing of boundaries will have to be responded to. The best way to do that is to put more armor in, put more money from the Europeans in so they're actually contributing more to their own defense.

I think it's a broader target list than just Wall Street, and I believe that we have to be very focused on how we try to take back the power and increase the empowerment of the American people. And, I think I have that kind of experience, maybe because they've beat me up for so many years, and I know exactly how to handle them because I've been in the arena with them time and time again.

When you're president, you can't vote present. You have to make a decision. Sometimes it's a split second decision. You don't have time to think about it. You've got to actually decide.

I'm very proud and grateful to have the support of so many elected Vermonters and former officials. Two former governors, the current governor, the current other senator. I really appreciate that.And I think it's because they've worked with me, they've seen what I do. They know what kind of a colleague I am. They want me as their partner in the White House. And that's exactly what I will do.

I think we've got to understand the complexity of the world that we are facing and no place is more so than in the Middle East.

Senator [Bernie] Sanders is the only person who I think would characterize me, a woman running to be the first woman president, as exemplifying the establishment.

I support special forces. I support trainers. I support the air campaign. And I think we're making some progress. I want to continue to intensify that, and that's exactly what the president is doing.

I do think questions have been raised and questions have to be answered.And there is no way to predict what comes in the door of that White House from day to day that can pose a threat to the United States or one of our friends and allies, and I think this is a big part of the job interview that we are all conducting with the voters here.

I'm not going to speculate.I'm just going to run my campaign, talk about what I'm doing and why I think I'd be the best president of any of the candidates on either side.

I think from a moral issue, CEOs should not be making - whether it's 270 or 300 times more than their workers are making.

I think we do not need to send more jobs to low wage countries. I think corporate America has to start investing in this country and create decent paying jobs here.