Ramsey Clark Quotes

Ramsey Clark's page delivers a sharp, urgent critique of politics and war that will engage readers looking for bold, confrontational insight.

38 quotes

1. 'Abu Ghraib is unbelievable in the innocent times of 1961. That we would torture people that way and on the instructions of the President of the United States and his highest legal advisers, torture is okay, they said. Go for it, fellas. If we can't renounce that and remove it from office, then the Constitution doesn't work anymore.'

2. 'The world is the most dangerous place it's ever been now because of what our country has done, and is doing, and we have to take it back.'

3. 'There can't be any more Fallujahs. Fallujah is the 21st century equivalent of Guernica. We just went in and destroyed that city, drove the people out, killed them, thousands. We don't know how many.'

4. 'He (Saddam) had this huge war going on, and you have to act firmly when you have an assassination attempt.' - BBC interview, 28 November 2005, about the torture and murder of 148 men and boys near the mainly Shiite town of Dujail, Iraq in 1982.

5. '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.'

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

7. '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.'

8. 'Who will protect the public when the police violate the law?'

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

10. 'All government studies show cocaine to be harmless, non-addictive, and benign.', spoken at the University of New Mexico in 1968

11. 'There is no conflict between liberty and safety. We will have both or neither.'

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

13. 'We've had 50 years of assault on Palestinian rights. I think they are the most terrorized: at least with the Iraqi people:. They're the most terrorized people on earth: and have been for so many years. Practically every Palestinian lives in constant harassment, threat of violence, humiliation It's been that way for a long long time:.' [1]

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

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

16. 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.

17. A great many people in this country are worried about law-and-order. And a great many people are worried about justice. But one thing is certain; you cannot have either until you have both.

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

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. The Christian Church overwhelmingly - there are exceptions - who choose to call Muhammad a terrorist. They could call Jesus a terrorist too. I mean, he was pretty tough on money lenders a time or two.

22. Both trials are marred with injustice, both are flawed.

23. 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.

24. Our first concern is the security of the lawyers because without security you can't possibly have a fair trial, if trial at all, and that's not been adequately attended to.

25. 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.

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. Violence is the ultimate human degradation.

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

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. 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.

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

36. I didn't volunteer; they asked me. I felt a duty to testify.

37. The great and constant need of those who investigate homicide and practice forensic pathology or criminal law is a warm humanism.

38. Nothing so diminishes democracy as secrecy.