Fred Thompson quotes

Fred Thompson was an American lawyer, actor, and politician known for his roles both on screen and in public service. His career spanned film, television, and the United States Senate. He left a mark as a versatile public figure and advocate for law and government. Here are 55 of his quotes:

The average 20-year-old serving us in Iraq knows more about their country's national security than the average 20-year political veteran serving in the Congress today.

Fred Thompson

Sometimes you have to, as I say, build bridges where you can - but draw lines where you must.

Fred Thompson

Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. This has led some people, not necessarily scientists, to wonder if Mars and Jupiter, non signatories to the Kyoto Treaty, are actually inhabited by alien SUV-driving industrialists.

Fred Thompson

The problem is that agencies sometimes lose sight of common sense as they create regulations.

Fred Thompson

In the end, we may be hurting the very people we should be concerned about - the inner-city poor, those who already have to live with many risks in their daily lives, those who do not have clout here in Washington.

Fred Thompson

We are always just one successful terrorist attack away from a nuclear disaster.

Fred Thompson

This country has shed more blood for the freedom of other people than all the other nations in the history of the world combined, and I'm tired of people feeling like they've got to apologize for America.

Fred Thompson

I'm not above acting like a seal every once in a while and waiting for the next fish, I just don't want to do it all the time.

Fred Thompson

For a long time in American history, people didn't even come up before the Senate. They didn't come before the Judiciary Committee, and up until about 1923, something like that.

Fred Thompson

I heard Senator Sam Irvin of Watergate fame say something that stayed with me: 'If you can paint a really good picture of a cow, you don't have to write the word "cow" under it.'

Fred Thompson

My daddy always said that a man who walks around with a smile on his face all the time can't possibly know what's going on.

Fred Thompson

We can't forget the fact that although at a particular point in time we never found any WMD down there, he clearly had had WMD. He clearly had had the beginnings of a nuclear program.

Fred Thompson

Let's not overlook, though, what we do know about the campaign finance scandal, and the fact the Chinese were involved in our presidential campaign and our congressional campaigns.

Fred Thompson

We're hoping for the best, but we need to prepare for the worst.

Fred Thompson

Hopefully, we can build bridges, but we also have to draw lines.

Fred Thompson

We just ask the agency to make reasonable and honest decisions, and the public deserves no less.

Fred Thompson

So if you look back over the long history of China, they've never tried to take over the world, but they've been quite aggressive in their own neighborhood... in carrying out their own purposes and interests in their sphere of the world.

Fred Thompson

We have some real political differences among us, but we all share the same goals: clean air and water, injury free workplaces, safe transportation systems, to name a few of the good things that can come from regulation.

Fred Thompson

But if the Chinese mainland, the PRC, attacked Taiwan, we'd be obligated to come to their aid.

Fred Thompson

And I believe in the 13 years Judge Roberts was there, he never turned down a request to give some assistance on a pro-bono case, and this was no different.

Fred Thompson

For example, lead paint in old houses can be a greater threat to children's health than lead that may be under some industrial site where there are no children.

Fred Thompson

I think that the justices were totally answering the way that they should. I think that the senators, as best I could tell, for the most part, Democrat and Republican, respected that.

Fred Thompson