Barry Goldwater was a U.S. senator from Arizona and the 1964 Republican presidential nominee.
Starting in his family’s Phoenix department store, he became its president from 1937-1953.
Transitioning to politics, he was elected to Phoenix’s city council in 1949, then the U.S. Senate in 1952.
A committed conservative, he championed a strong stance against the Soviet Union and criticized Democratic socialist tendencies.
Facing President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1964 presidential race, Goldwater’s fervent anticommunism views were seen as extreme, leading to a significant defeat, capturing only six states.
Nevertheless, he reclaimed a Senate seat in 1968 and crucially influenced Nixon’s 1974 resignation.
Goldwater’s legacy includes his role as a conservative stalwart and authorship of “The Conscience of a Conservative”.
I have listed below some of the thoughtful quotes by Barry Goldwater.
Best Barry Goldwater Quotes
The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue. ~ Barry Goldwater.
It’s political Daddyism and it’s as old as demagogues and despotism. ~ Barry Goldwater.
To disagree, one doesn’t have to be disagreeable. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I think some highly secret government UFO investigations are going on that we don’t know about – and probably never will unless the Air Force discloses them. ~ Barry Goldwater.
We cannot allow the American flag to be shot at anywhere on earth if we are to retain our respect and prestige. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I understand Jacqueline Kennedy has redone the White House in eighteenth-century style. Why, then, I’d fit in perfectly. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Graft and corruption are symptoms of the illness that besets the labor movement, not the cause of it. The cause is the enormous economic and political power now concentrated in the hands of union leaders. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I’ve played everything – baseball, football, basketball. I can still swim a mile a day. That’s why I can’t walk. ~ Barry Goldwater.
The best thing Clinton could do – I think I wrote him a letter about this, but I’m not sure – is to shut up. He has no discipline. ~ Barry Goldwater.
American business has just forgotten the importance of selling. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Any government which can promise you everything you want can also take away everything you have. ~ Barry Goldwater.
You don’t have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight. ~ Barry Goldwater.
The constitution is an instrument, above all, for LIMITING the functions of government. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Top Barry Goldwater Quotes
I am a conservative Republican, but I believe in democracy and the separation of church and state. The conservative movement is founded on the simple tenet that people have the right to live life as they please as long as they don’t hurt anyone else in the process. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I have the unmitigated gall to think that I could lead men anywhere, business, politics or combat. ~ Barry Goldwater.
When fraternities are not allowed, Communism flourishes. Young men who are inexperienced but have faith are more useful than older, experienced men without faith. The fraternity system is a bastion of American strength. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I’m probably the most violent advocate of peanut butter in history. On a dare from one of my sons, I actually shaved with peanut butter and it wasn’t bad, but it smells. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Everyone knows that gays have served honorably in the military since at least the time of Julius Caesar. ~ Barry Goldwater.
When white and black and brown and every other color decide they’re going to live together as Christians, then and only then are we going to see an end to these troubles. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I’ve always said I have nothing against a woman doing anything a man can do as long as she gets home in time to cook dinner. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Famous Barry Goldwater Quotes
I am frankly sick and tired of the political preachers telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in A, B, C, and D. Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? ~ Barry Goldwater.
I’m the most underdog underdog there is. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Forced integration is just as wrong as forced segregation. ~ Barry Goldwater.
The Conservative approach is nothing more or less than an attempt to apply the wisdom and experience and the revealed truths of the past to the problems of today. The challenge is not to find new or different truths, but to learn how to apply established truths to the problems of the contemporary world. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I think the President ought to bring everybody that’s in American uniform back because we’re headed for war. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Without the National Federation of Republican Women, there would be no Republican Party. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I have characterized Nixon as a loner, a cold man with great self-confidence and a one-track mind centered on the advancement of Richard Nixon. ~ Barry Goldwater.
In your heart you know he’s right. ~ Barry Goldwater.
A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Release the holders of state from any restraints other than those they wish to impose upon themselves and you are swinging down the well-travelled road to absolutism. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Popular Barry Goldwater Quotes
I certainly believe in aliens in space, and that they are indeed visiting our planet. They may not look like us, but I have very strong feelings that they have advanced beyond our mental capabilities. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws but to repeal them. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Some programs have been theatrical masterpieces, but all we’re seeing is the negative side of nuclear war. ~ Barry Goldwater.
When I’m not a politician, I’ll be dead. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Most Americans have no real understanding of the operation of the international money lenders. The accounts of the Federal Reserve System have never been audited. It operates outside the control of Congress and manipulates the credit of the United States. ~ Barry Goldwater.
To my mind the single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom. ~ Barry Goldwater.
If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I will offer a choice, not an echo. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Government should stay the hell out of people’s business. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Nixon was the most dishonest individual I have ever met in my life. He lied to his wife, his family, his friends, his colleagues in the Congress, lifetime members of his own political party, the American people and the world. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Whether in families or in politics, a good observation: One can disagree without being disagreeable. ~ Barry Goldwater.
The Conservative knows that to regard man as part of an undifferentiated mass is to consign him to ultimate slavery. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Great Barry Goldwater Quotes
Unlimited campaign spending eats at the heart of the democratic process. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Extremism in defense of Liberty is no vice. ~ Barry Goldwater.
The only summit meeting that can succeed is the one that does not take place. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I fear Washington and centralized government more than I do Moscow. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Throughout history, government has proved to be the chief instrument for thwarting man’s liberty. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Equality, rightly understood as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences; wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I think any man in business would be foolish to fool around with his secretary. If it’s somebody else’s secretary, fine. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Hubert Humphrey talks so fast that listening to him is like trying to read Playboy magazine with your wife turning the pages. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Small men, seeking great wealth or power, have too often and too long turned even the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Women are hard enough to handle now without giving them a gun! ~ Barry Goldwater.
It is impossible to maintain freedom and order and justice without religious and moral sanctions. ~ Barry Goldwater.
A man from the west will fight over three things: water, women and gold, and usually in that order. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Thought-Provoking Barry Goldwater Quotes
You’ve got to forget about this civilian. Whenever you drop bombs, you’re going to hit civilians. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I made an effort to find out what was in the building at Wright Patterson Air Force Base where the information is stored that has been collected by the Air Force, and I was understandably denied this request. It is still classified above Top Secret. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I say that when you elect a president you want a man to manage the legitimate business of your government. The government that is big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take it away. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Let us henceforth make war on all monopolies – whether corporate or union. The enemy of freedom is unrestrained power, and the champions of freedom will fight against the concentration of power wherever they find it. ~ Barry Goldwater.
My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. ~ Barry Goldwater.
Trade unions infringe upon the property rights of company owners. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue! ~ Barry Goldwater.
Profound Barry Goldwater Quotes
There’s no greater service to this country than the defense of its freedom. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I could have ended the war in a month. I could have made North Vietnam look like a mud puddle. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I won’t say that the papers misquote me, but I sometimes wonder where Christianity would be today if some of those reporters had been Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. ~ Barry Goldwater.
While I am a great believer in the free enterprise system and all that it entails, I am an even stronger believer in the right of our people to live in a clean and pollution-free environment. ~ Barry Goldwater.
The Republicans have a positive talent for self-destruction. ~ Barry Goldwater.
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. ~ Barry Goldwater.
So these were the 72 top Barry Goldwater quotes and sayings.
If you like these quotes and sayings, then you can also read my other posts on Buddy Valastro quotes and Sam Rayburn quotes.
