Cory Booker Quotes

Most people think that these high-density poor neighborhoods, predominately people of color, just came about through some accident of history, but they were the conscious creation [of institutional racism].

We prove worthy of the privileges that we have not by paying anything back, but by paying it forward.

We make a grave mistake when we assume this spirit of connectedness is automatic or inevitable. It is not a birthright. A united country is an enduring struggle. It takes collective work and individual sacrifice. It is not enough to call on others or wait for a leader to emerge who will exalt our national values. I believe this is the question we face, as citizens of this nation: what will we do to affirm this most critical American virtue?

I’m a big believer that if America, if this country hasn’t broken your heart, then you don’t love her enough. Because there’s things that are savagely wrong in this country.

The vicious attack on actor Jussie Smollett was an attempted modern-day lynching. I'm glad he's safe. To those in Congress who don't feel the urgency to pass our Anti-Lynching bill designating lynching as a federal hate crime– I urge you to pay attention.

I’m not here to tell folk just what they should know, I’m here to call on folk to understand that in a moral moment, there is no neutral. In a moral moment, there is no bystanders. You are either complicit in evil, you are either contributing to wrong, or you are fighting against it.

There is great dignity in work – and in America, if you want to provide for your family, you should be able to find a full-time job that pays a fair wage. The federal jobs guarantee is an idea that demands to be taken seriously. Creating an employment guarantee would give all Americans a shot at a day’s work and, by introducing competition into the labor market, raise wages and improve benefits for all workers.

I don’t think most Americans realize that the way we raise animals is such a betrayal of the heritage of our grandparents. I don’t think they realize that … these big companies like and and others have our American farmers now living like in constant debt, forced to follow their rules. I’ve watched the suffering in North Carolina of minority communities who live around and can no longer breathe their air … and I’ve seen workers in the meatpacking plants and how dangerous those plants are. Everybody is losing in this system – except for the massive corporations that have taken over the American food system.

We are brick city. We are like bricks themselves. We are strong. We are resilient. We are enduring.

Working Americans would tell you that the dignity of work is being stripped ... they are working harder than their parents and falling further behind ... while their salaries may moderately have gone up, what has gone up more is the cost of prescription drugs ... child care ... college ...

I respect and value the ideals of rugged individualism and self-reliance. But rugged individualism didn’t defeat the British, it didn’t get us to the moon, build our nation’s highways, or map the human genome. We did that together.

The "power of the people" is greater than the "people in power" ... Change does not come from Washington, it comes to Washington.

... marijuana in our country is already legal for privileged people ... the war on drugs has been a war on black and brown people.

You are dipping into the Kool-aid and you do not even know the flavor (After Joe Biden criticized Booker's anti-crime work as Newark mayor).

Unnecessary hardship is being borne by Americans of all backgrounds; our institutions are being recklessly and unconstitutionally attacked and even shattered. In just 71 days, the President has inflicted harm after harm on Americans' safety; financial stability; the foundations of our democracy; and any sense of common decency. These are not normal times in our nation. And they should not be treated as such in the United States Senate. The threats to the American people and American democracy are grave and urgent and we all must do more to stand against them. Generations from now will look back at this moment and have a single question — where were you?