John Ashcroft

Unique among the nations, America recognized the source of our character as being godly and eternal, not being civic and temporal. And because we have understood that our source is eternal, America has been different. We have no king but Jesus.

To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists, for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil.

— John Ashcroft people

The last time I looked at September 11th, an American street was a war zone. There was a street in Virginia that was a war zone.

— John Ashcroft war

The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved.

— John Ashcroft crime

(Allegedly) Why are we talking about this in the White House? History will not judge this kindly.

— John Ashcroft story

I'm trying to think of all the reasons that are appropriate for me to refuse to answer that question.

— John Ashcroft reason

I'm convinced that faith is a matter of inspiration, not a matter of imposition. It is something a person models rather than mandates. Faith does not impose itself on other people. Imposition usually sacrifices somebody else; it seeks to injure or extort others.

— John Ashcroft faith

Sometimes the act of walking in the face of the elements helps us come to grips with reality. Or it simply exhausts us to the point of seeing the futility of resisting reality and the futility of denial.

— John Ashcroft time

I was deeply grieved and suddenly depleted by a draining weariness. This day had been a nightmare, and I had not yet been asleep.

— John Ashcroft sleep

My family has never suggested to me that my identity or value to them depended on my station in life. I knew that they did not consider me any more or less valuable because I held some political office. They valued me as a husband and father, whether or not I won an election. Nor did they regard holding office on Capitol Hill or in the Missouri statehouse as the epitome of success. Quite the contrary, my family had endured numerous personal sacrifices because of my public positions.

— John Ashcroft life

A trustee has a responsibility to guard the assets of others with a higher degree of care than he does his own.

— John Ashcroft trust

Through it all, I've learned to trust that God does indeed have a plan and purpose for me. Trust doesn't come into play when you can figure everything out; that's mere reason. Trust operates when you can't understand why circumstances or events happen. That's where it takes faith to believe that God knows what is best for our lives.

— John Ashcroft faith

I decided this early on at Justice: if the traditional way was the most effective way of doing something, then we'd maintain it. But if it was not functioning at optimum levels, we would be doing the country a disservice by continuing to do things "like we've always done them."

— John Ashcroft service

To me, failure is not fatal unless you quit; getting knocked down is not embarrassing unless you allow it to keep you down.

— John Ashcroft failure

Politics disabuses a person of the notion that you can please everybody. It is an inescapable fact that people will always have different opinions, and some people are going to disagree. Sooner or later, a person constructs his or her own "platform" and stands on it, regardless of what others think, say, or do. It is also true that some people delight in another person's demise.

— John Ashcroft people

It wasn't that people were antagonistic; it was more that they were accustomed to doing their work in a certain way, and change always causes some people to be uncomfortable.

— John Ashcroft change

— John Ashcroft faith

It is not enough that we have a guilty defendant. We must have an innocent system as well.

— John Ashcroft guilt

To me, capital punishment is a form of societal self-defense. It should not be employed indiscriminately, but in cases of the most heinous crimes, the death penalty may be the only appropriate punishment. Some people believe it is right to take a life to save the life of someone else, but they would not vote to take the life of a convicted criminal, no matter how horrible the crime. Others believe that killing another person for any reason is simply wrong. I respect those opinions, but I disagree with them. I'm convinced that government has a duty to promote community defense. The death penalty, when applied in appropriate cases, can be a strong deterrent to crime. It is certainly a deterrent to the convicted criminal sentenced to death, and it is also a deterrent to other potential capital offenders.

— John Ashcroft life

I have to chuckle sometimes when I am painted as "hard-nosed." In truth, our Justice Department wasn't nearly as aggressive as Roosevelt's. And our respect for civil liberties was far more extensive than the response following Pearl Harbor. Yes, we were tough, but we always operated within the law; it was never our policy or practice to detain any noncombatant without charges. In our conduct, we never approached the limits of the law as closely as Roosevelt did.

— John Ashcroft truth

Do not allow your sorrow or your rage to become hostility toward people on the basis of their ethnicity or their religious views. That is unacceptable; it is out of bounds, and if you break the law, we will prosecute you for it.

— John Ashcroft war

Soldiers defending a country at war are not subject to the rules of procedure designed for court trials. For example, if a soldier encounters an enemy, under internationally agreed upon rules of war, that soldier can take whatever action is necessary to protect himself and neutralize his enemy, whether it involves capturing and detaining the enemy or killing him on the spot.

— John Ashcroft war

Since lives and liberties depend upon clarity, not obfuscation, and reason, not hyperbole, let me take this opportunity today to be clear: Each action taken by the Department of Justice, as well as the war crimes commissions considered by the president and the Department of Defense, is carefully drawn to target a narrow class of individuals- terrorists. Our legal powers are targeted at terrorists. Our investigation is focused on terrorists. Our prevention strategy targets the terrorist threat.

— John Ashcroft war

We need honest, reasoned debate; not fear-mongering. To those who pit Americans against immigrants, and citizens against non-citizens; to those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty; my message to you is this: Your tactics only aid terrorists- for they erode our national unity and diminish our resolve. They give ammunition to America's enemies, and pause to America's friends. They encourage people of good will to remain silent in the face of evil.

— John Ashcroft fear

Doing what is right in the face of adversity is not always easy or popular. Critics may assail you, but the critics don't always realize what they don't know or don't understand, because they don't have access to all the information.

— John Ashcroft adversity

Some people in our country seem more concerned about respecting the dignity and privacy of criminals and terrorists than they are about having an airport full of people obliterated, or a completely booked hotel blown to bits. Perhaps they think, Let's not get so upset about attacks on our embassies or military bases. Maybe, they surmise, the terrorists have good reason for attacking us. We have no right to be harassing innocent people in our country. For some people, not even the grotesque images that filled our television screens after al Qaeda's blatant attacks on 9/11 seem enough to wake them out of their utopia feel-good world.

— John Ashcroft people

Simply put, international terrorism made international cooperation mandatory rather than elective. Collective security has become the only real security against the hydra-headed monster of international terror.

— John Ashcroft man

How sad, that the group with the most access to the truth chose in several strategic instances to look the other way.

— John Ashcroft truth

The goal of terror is not traditional territorial enlargement; rather the war target of the terrorist is the dismemberment of the will of the community it terrorizes.

— John Ashcroft war

We must remain constantly vigilant. We dare not underestimate our enemy. Al Qaeda is committed to the destruction of America, and they are in it for the long haul. They are much smarter than many give them credit for being, and they are definitely much more patient than the pace of our fast-food society conditions us to be. Their commitment does not depend on bin Laden or any other single leader.

— John Ashcroft art

The worst mistake a boss can make is not to say 'well done'.

— John Ashcroft

People who commit crimes should be responsible for those crimes. It doesn't matter whether they're priests or ministers or atheists.

— John Ashcroft crime

There is no priority higher than the prevention of terrorism.

— John Ashcroft terrorism

Nothing that we have authorized conflicts with any law regarding privacy or any provision of the constitution.

— John Ashcroft author

What we learned on September 11 is that the unthinkable is now thinkable in the world.

— John Ashcroft world

We have to think outside the box, inside the Constitution, find ways to do things that will elevate our security, reduce the risk of the incidence of terrorist attack.

— John Ashcroft will

The way the terrorist is trained to operate, especially the suicide terrorists, makes punishment and the threat of punishment far less valuable to those who would prevent the crime.

— John Ashcroft men

An FBI agent ought to be able to surf the net and look for sites that instruct people how to make bombs.

— John Ashcroft people

The liberties and freedoms which we hold dear and we recognize and cherish and respect guide the way we gather information in the United States.

— John Ashcroft freedom

It doesn't help to wait until something happens and then prosecute the offenders, especially if it's the idea of the offender to extinguish himself in the commission of the crime.

— John Ashcroft self

We've got to understand that the whole nature of the way American democracy guards its freedom has been changed.

— John Ashcroft freedom

If necessity is the mother of invention, it's the father of cooperation. And we're cooperating like never before.

— John Ashcroft mother

It's a different world.

— John Ashcroft world

Nothing remains great without a capacity to change and to accommodate the conditions of a changing world.

— John Ashcroft change

Reasonable regulations regarding the ownership of weapons are appropriate.

— John Ashcroft reason

The FBI has long been a part of the security for the nation's banks because bank robberies have been a priority.

— John Ashcroft art

The Patriot Act allows and provides a basis for an exchange of information.

— John Ashcroft change

I don't play full court anymore. I just play half-court.

— John Ashcroft play

Prior to September 11, we thought the world beyond our shores was one world of risk and the world in our continent was another world of risk.

— John Ashcroft world

The Internet provides very serious challenges to our ability to keep from children the kinds of things that are destructive to them.

— John Ashcroft children

The path we have chosen is constitutional.

— John Ashcroft path

We need to strengthen our analytic capacity in Washington, we need to centralize the anti-terrorism effort.

— John Ashcroft strength

Agents need to be free to pursue investigations in ways that they haven't. There have been restraints that a reformed FBI needs to make sure we don't impose.

— John Ashcroft rain

All of us want to have meaning in our lives and want to feel like we're doing something that makes a difference. I believe we're doing that in the Justice Department.

— John Ashcroft art

The FBI. is a massive culture. It's been a culture that served America well, and it's been focused on prosecution. But what we need in terms of terrorism is prevention.

— John Ashcroft culture

The worst mistake a boss can make is not to say well done.

— John Ashcroft

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