Quotes by Ralph Nader

A leader has the vision and conviction that a dream can be achieved. He inspires the power and energy to get it done.
– Ralph Nader
A society that has more justice is a society that needs less charity.
– Ralph Nader
Addiction should never be treated as a crime. It has to be treated as a health problem. We do not send alcoholics to jail in this country. Over 500,000 people are in our jails who are nonviolent drug users.
– Ralph Nader
Every time I see something terrible, it's like I see it at age 19. I keep a freshness that way.
– Ralph Nader
For almost 70 years the life insurance industry has been a smug sacred cow feeding the public a steady line of sacred bull.
– Ralph Nader
George W. Bush is very vulnerable but not if you campaign the way the major candidates - except for Dean and Kucinich - are campaigning.
– Ralph Nader
I don't think meals have any business being deductible. I'm for separation of calories and corporations.
– Ralph Nader
Isn't it about time that the US government stop supporting dictatorships and avaricious oligarchies with our tax monies, munitions and diplomacy?
– Ralph Nader
John D. Rockefeller wanted to dominate oil, but Microsoft wants it all, you name it: cable, media, banking, car dealerships.
– Ralph Nader
No presidential candidate should visit Las Vegas without condemning organized gambling.
– Ralph Nader
Obviously, the answer to oil spills is to paper-train the tankers.
– Ralph Nader
Our founders did not oust George III in order for us to crown Richard I.
– Ralph Nader
People are stunned to hear that one company has data files on 185 million Americans.
– Ralph Nader
President Reagan was elected on the promise of getting government off the backs of the people and now he demands that government wrap itself around the waists of the people.
– Ralph Nader
Sanctions against polluters are feeble and out of date, and are rarely invoked.
– Ralph Nader
The corporate lobby in Washington is basically designed to stifle all legislative activity on behalf of consumers.
– Ralph Nader
The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.
– Ralph Nader
The liberal intelligentsia has allowed its party to become a captive of corporate interests.
– Ralph Nader
The networks are not some chicken-coop manufacturing lobby whose calls nobody returns.
– Ralph Nader
The only difference between the Republican and Democratic parties is the velocities with which their knees hit the floor when corporations knock on their door. That's the only difference.
– Ralph Nader
The use of solar energy has not been opened up because the oil industry does not own the sun.
– Ralph Nader
There can be no daily democracy without daily citizenship.
– Ralph Nader
This country has far more problems than it deserves and far more solutions than it applies.
– Ralph Nader
Today the large organization is lord and master, and most of its employees have been desensitized much as were the medieval peasants who never knew they were serfs.
– Ralph Nader
Turn on to politics, or politics will turn on you.
– Ralph Nader
When strangers start acting like neighbors... communities are reinvigorated.
– Ralph Nader
Your best teacher is your last mistake.
– Ralph Nader
Up against the corporate government, voters find themselves asked to choose between look-alike candidates from two parties vying to see who takes the marching orders from their campaign paymasters and their future employers. The money of vested interest nullifies genuine voter choice and trust.
– Ralph Nader
The nation is faced with one of the most corporate-orientated anti-consumer Congresses in our history.
– Ralph Nader
The 'democracy gap' in our politics and elections spells a deep sense of powerlessness by people who drop out, do not vote, or listlessly vote for the 'least worst' every four years and then wonder why after every cycle the 'least worst' gets worse.
– Ralph Nader
Power has to be insecure to be responsive.
– Ralph Nader
Like sex in Victorian England, the reality of Big Business today is our big dirty secret.
– Ralph Nader
I once said to my father, when I was a boy, 'Dad we need a third political party.' He said to me, 'I'll settle for a second.'
– Ralph Nader