Deval Patrick Quotes

We need a government that is what we are at our best. Smart, efficient, pragmatic and compassionate.

I’d like to have another opportunity to serve. I believe in service. I enjoy it. I also like coming and going, you know, because I think that my private-sector life has contributed to how I think about public-sector challenges and what I do in the public sector.

My grandma forbid us from describing ourselves as poor. She said, ‘we’re broke.’ Because broke is temporary.

I grew up on the south side of Chicago, most of that time on welfare. My mother and sister and I used to live with my grandparents and various cousins. We shared a two-bedroom tenement, and the three of us slept in one of those bedrooms and had a set of bunk beds.

I view the experiences that I have had – both tough ones and the pleasant ones – as gifts. They’ve been full of lessons. And I’ve learned to be open to those lessons.

I very much believe in values-based leadership and that the values that I believe in and try to govern by are transcendent values.

If you are ever going to move beyond where you stand at that moment you have to conjure a picture in your head of where you want to go.

My most vivid memory of my father centers on the day he left. It was warm, and my mother was especially short with Rhonda and me that afternoon, which I attributed to the heat. I was oblivious to the mounting hostilities in our basement apartment.

We’re Americans. We shape our own future. Let’s start by standing up for President Barack Obama.

I went to big, broken, under-resourced public schools, but we had a real sense of community, because those were days in the ’50s and the ’60s when every child was under the jurisdiction of every single adult on the block.

This is a horrific day in Boston. My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured.

For too long, Democrats have been telling people what they want to hear. I’m going to tell you what I believe.

I view the experiences that I have had – both the tough ones and the pleasant ones – as gifts.

We have drained common sense out of our politics. The more we focus on tactics and games, the more good people check out and give up.

People aren’t going to go bankrupt anymore if they have a serious illness, which was a serious issue here in the country before the Affordable Care Act. And, in fact, the expense of expanding health care for those who need the subsidy is picked up by the federal government for most of the early years.

A great teacher who is full of excitement and love for her students can make all the difference in their lives.

Anybody who knows me knows that I’m no attack dog.

I don’t want to be a senator.