110+ Rachel Maddow Quotes On Education, Socialism And Social Justice

Rachel Maddow is an American journalist, political commentator, and author. She is the host of The Rachel Maddow Show, a nightly television show on MSNBC. Maddow is the first openly gay anchor to host a major prime-time news program in the United States. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Rachel Maddow on education, leadership, socialism.

Top 10 Rachel Maddow Quotes

1. A handkerchief can never be put in another pocket after it has been in one pocket. I don't walk under ladders. I have items of clothing that are lucky for me. That rotates, but I am luck-oriented.
2. If you're someone people count on, particularly in difficult moments, that's a sign of a life lived honorably.
3. The single best thing about coming out of the closet is that nobody can insult you by telling you what you've just told them.
4. I have a file of letters and bits of ephemera from friends who have died. I have had lots of friends who died of AIDS.
5. I really believe in trying to increase the amount of useful information in the world and in being accurate in the sense that you can take what I say to the bank, even if you disagree with me.
6. Bernie Sanders are the only person who talks about the kinds of things that might be driving people to support Donald Trump in such large numbers in the Republican Party.
7. If you took a cracked pot and you cracked that cracked pot, you'd be approaching the level of cracked pottery we are talking about here.
8. Activism is setting a goal of something you would like to be different, and figuring out what would have to change to achieve that goal. It's sort of like math.
9. In the little town where I live in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, we now have a 'Public Safety Complex' around the corner from what used to be our hokey Andy Griffith-esque fire station.
10. Pentagon dollars are essentially seen as a different kind of funding that doesn't have to stand for itself and make an argument for itself in the house of Congress.

Rachel Maddow Short Quotes

• [Donald] Trump is a fascist and that`s not a term I use loosely or often but he has earned it.
• Donald Trump removed all doubt. He is running for president as a fascist demagogue.
• The single best thing about honesty is that it requires no follow-up.
• Social security isn’t a ponzi scheme. It’s not bankrupting us. It’s not an outrage. It is working.
• I'm not a screamer. I'm confrontational, but I don't think that translates into anger.
• The [Donald] Trump campaign turned on a dime instantly as soon as those WikiLeaks dumps started.
• I'm hopeless by e-mail, by phone, by text.
• My life is better with every year of living it.
• I'm gonna vote against Donald Trump .
• I'm a national security liberal, which I tell people because it's meant to sound absurd.

Rachel Maddow Quotes About Leadership

Humans are ambitious and rational and proud. And we don't fall in line with people who don't respect us and who we don't believe have our best interests at heart. We are willing to follow leaders, but only to the extent that we believe they call on our best, not our worst. — Rachel Maddow

Francois Hollande is the president of France. He got all sorts of accolades for his leadership in France after the Paris attacks. — Rachel Maddow

Every popular zillion dollar sport has its share of personal scandals around the sport and its leadership. — Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow Quotes About Love

I loved being on the radio. Being paid to talk? It's like being paid to eat. — Rachel Maddow

The primary agency responsible for rallying U.S.-led interests around the world appears to be having the air sucked out of it. If you are Russia and you are looking at that right now, do you love what you are seeing? — Rachel Maddow

I think Donald Trump is now kind of in love with the idea of becoming president of the United States. I think he truly does believe that he can be the Republican nominee. — Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow Quotes About People

Gay people - generally speaking - have a responsibility to our own community and to future generations of gay people to come out, if and when we feel that we can. — Rachel Maddow

Fascistic leaders are aggressively macho and chauvinistic. They are xenophobic about people who they portray as outsiders or some sort of threat to the nation or as weaklings they can denounce. — Rachel Maddow

When people get to speak about themselves and the things that matter to them, on their own terms, we see them as who they are. They can't be reduced to objects of derision. — Rachel Maddow

The way that we make dumb decisions and discriminatory decisions is by employing stereotypes about groups of people. We don't see people as fully human when other people speak for them. — Rachel Maddow

It used to be that we disagreed over the basic facts we were fighting over, and we had different opinions about them. Now I think we accept different sources of authority. ... And people can establish credibility on their own say-so as long as nobody follows the trail and calls them out on it. — Rachel Maddow

I think a lot of people of my generation are discomfited by the assertion of neutrality in the mainstream media, this idea that they're the voice of God. I think it's just honest to say, yes, you know where I'm coming from but you can fact-check anything I say. — Rachel Maddow

There`s a reason people pause their lives to engage in political activism and pressure their local political leaders. Because as a whole, even if you can`t identify any one instance, as a whole pressure works and sometimes it starts with something as simple as pushing the button on the intercom. — Rachel Maddow

If you have to hire paid actors to impersonate people who politically support you, people don't actually natively politically support you. You are not a political animal that exists in nature. — Rachel Maddow

Those policies [of Jean-Marie Le Pen ]I find repellent. I believe many people right across consist the world do. There is no future in that type of narrow minded racism and nationalism. — Rachel Maddow

When it starts to seem like you have popped into bed with a specific party, it makes it difficult for people to believe you are not doing someone else's bidding for them. — Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow Quotes About Responsibility

The folks celebrating Jim Bunning are seeing him as an anti-government, anti-spending activist. But to embrace Jim Bunning is to embrace a strange record, if you really are a libertarian, if you really are a deficit hawk, if you really care about spending and responsibility. — Rachel Maddow

I'm sure other people in the business have considered reasons why they're doing what they're doing, but I do think that if you're gay you have a responsibility to come out. — Rachel Maddow

Since his arrival, the new secretary of state has not held a single press conference. On his first big trip to Europe last month for the G20 summit, Rex Tillerson said less than 50 words in total in response to press questions. — Rachel Maddow

I end up liking politicians, both left and right, who talk about political matters as if they are addressing a bunch of adults, as if they are capable of handling both complexity and emotional responsibility. — Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow Quotes About Military

If the colonists hadn't rejected British militarism and the massive financial burden of maintaining the British military, America wouldn't exist. — Rachel Maddow

Military preparedness is absolutely a form of strength. — Rachel Maddow

As proud and capable as it is, I think the idea that the military can build new countries is a tall order, and it's the sort of thing that we would only expect from a military that we have superresourced and thought of as supercapable. — Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow Quotes About Talk

If something is being done on a secret basis in national security, that's a great reason for elected officials to not talk about it. And that's a great way to shirk accountability for it with the public. — Rachel Maddow

It is sometimes hard to know what Sarah Palin means, just on a day to day basis. Sometimes it is hard to follow what she is talking about. — Rachel Maddow

Sarah Palin uses me as a laugh line in her stump speeches. If you're willing to turn me into a joke, you should also be willing to talk to me. — Rachel Maddow

I have learned when two Republicans are talking about legalizing drugs to shut up. — Rachel Maddow

When you think about me talking to Rick Santorum or Pat Buchanan or one of these old guys, part of what makes that a joyful experience for me is that in my head I'm thinking, He has to talk to me. Like, poor Pat Buchanan, all the things you've done and you end up having to talk to me. — Rachel Maddow

[Facism] that incredibly loaded word we do not associate with the real American politics is being used by other conservatives, by other Republicans to talk about Donald Trump. — Rachel Maddow

The whole straight talk thing, which John McCain kind of turned into a slogan at one point in one of his presidential campaigns, what that is, is a symptom of somebody who has no time for messing around. Because he`s trying to get stuff done constantly. — Rachel Maddow

Rachel Maddow Famous Quotes And Sayings

The spy boom has been a beautiful windfall for architects, construction companies, IT specialists, and above all defense contractors, enriching thousands of private companies and dozens of local economies hugging the Capital Beltway. — Rachel Maddow

Fascism is not just a word. It`s not just a way to insult someone with whom you disagree. It is a specific thing. It is a specific form of far right politics that involves a sort of narcissistic cult of superman action around the leader of the party. — Rachel Maddow

Chris Christie who proposes accepting Syrian refugee orphans under the age of 5 because they may not be vetted well enough. You can`t trust them. The 5-year-olds might it be terrorists. After all, they`re from Syria. — Rachel Maddow

We all now have to decide whether we`re comfortable using this word, weather fascism is too over the top to use in this context of our politics right now in our country or whether it helps because it`s accurate, to basically describe this as America`s Sir Oswald Mosley moment. — Rachel Maddow

Americans are incredibly religious as a nation, and we have gotten that way by having the government stay out of religion and say religion is a private matter. The government doesn't take sides. Public schools don't promote or denigrate any religion. — Rachel Maddow

I still think of myself as the new kid, even though I've been on the air for two and a half years. But my job is the same as it ever was, which is to make 9:00 P.M. as good as I can. — Rachel Maddow

Russian government was in contact with multiple [Donald] Trump campaign sources while they were doing [attacks]. Russian nemesis in the American government, U.S. State Department, CIA, are not faring well since Donald Trump came to power. — Rachel Maddow

At a time when America should be doing everything we can to lead the fight to defeat ISIS and other radical jihadists, Donald Trump is playing right into their hands. — Rachel Maddow

Donald Trump announced his no Muslims are allowed to come to the United States plan and that led to one of the greatest tweets of all time from New York Times columnist. Quote, "OK, I concede I picked the wrong day to modestly walk back my Trumpism as fascism column." — Rachel Maddow

Fascism allegation [to Donald Trump] is not coming from the left. This is coming from the right. It`s coming from inside the Republican Party and from within mainstream conservative thought. — Rachel Maddow

Marco Rubio calling [Donald] Trump`s ban all Muslims proposal, quote, "offensive and outlandish," it`s the same Rubio who was one upping Trump`s promise to shut down mosques. Mr. Rubio was saying he would shut down not just mosques but any place where Muslims might be radicalized - cafes, diners, any place. — Rachel Maddow

Marine Le Pen is more careful than her dad was about saying things like denying the Holocaust, right? But it`s the same politics. It`s the same modern anti anti-immigrant, anti-and the Semitic, xenophobic authoritarian modern pseudo-fascism. — Rachel Maddow

Jean-Marie Le Pen is a holocaust denier who was convicted and fined for dismissing Nazi concentration camps as a, quote, "Detail in History." But he kept running this anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, populist unapologetic xenophobic far right party in French politics. — Rachel Maddow

We got the first WikiLeaks publication of documents hacked and stolen by Russian government sources from the DNC, from the Democratic Party, and they started publishing those stolen documents from the DNC right before the Democrats started their convention.Good political timing if you`re trying to help [Donald] Trump and hurt the Democrats. — Rachel Maddow

Fascist is not just an epithet. Fascist is a proper noun that means a specific thing. It`s a real thing. It`s not always referring to ancient history. — Rachel Maddow

When Ronald Reagan spoke a thing aloud, he believed it forever and for always. By the time he started running for president, in 1976, he had already developed an unwavering and steadfast faith in the correctness of whatever came out of his mouth. — Rachel Maddow

Abstinence-only education - the best STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease) and pregnancy delivery system that politicians have ever devised. — Rachel Maddow

I have a constitutional weakness in which I am very easily distracted by flashing lights. If there is a TV on in the room, I can't have a conversation with you. I won't eat, I won't sleep, I'll just meld with my couch. — Rachel Maddow

Sarah Palin is backing in be to Republican presidential politics in a big way with a big high profile endorsement decision.That is, I think, probably going to cause a lot of upset in one particular part of the Republican establishment. — Rachel Maddow

David Jolly is the only Republican I could find who`s really saying Donald Trump, you`re out, forget it, this is unacceptable, this is beyond the pale. — Rachel Maddow

There is no news value to the content of those [Newtown 911] tapes. The actual audio is of no news value at all, unless you want the thrill of hearing the sound of the actual individual gunshot that might have killed a 7 year-old. — Rachel Maddow

[Bob Ferguson] won that huge ruling against the first version of the Muslim ban that resulted in it being stopped dead in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. — Rachel Maddow

The more you push back on Donald [Trump], whether you`re in the media or whether you are in the GOP establishment, the stronger his base of support comes. — Rachel Maddow

I will say that Bernie Sanders are the opposite end of the spectrum from Donald Trump. We see him leading right now in the Republican Party in an intractable way. — Rachel Maddow

The CIA has concluded in a secret assessment that Russia intervened in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump win the presidency rather than just to undermine confidence in the U.S. electoral system. — Rachel Maddow

In this country, the most popular form of car racing is the huge multibillion dollar industry that`s called stock car racing. That`s what NASCAR is. That`s what the SC stands for in the middle of NASCAR, Stock cars. — Rachel Maddow

Ben Carson also denounced [Donald] Trump`s ban all Muslims proposal saying we do not and would not advocate being selective on one`s religion. — Rachel Maddow

Forced federal registration of U.S. citizens based on religious identity is fascism, period. Nothing else to call it. — Rachel Maddow

Here in the United States, when the term "fascist" gets used, it`s either talking about other countries, ancient history or it`s used as a sort of insult, right, a sort of generic right wing epithet that people use to criticize politicians who are at most on the edge of mainstream American political thought. — Rachel Maddow

I don`t think we have thought of ourselves, at least in a modern iteration, as being a nationalist country or a country that has nationalist movements. — Rachel Maddow

It's not just the small-potatoes post-9/11 Homeland spending that feels a little off mission. It's the big-ticket stuff too. — Rachel Maddow

I like explaining things, and I believe that you can do very high-level explanation on basic cable news provided you are willing to work hard enough to be a good storyteller. — Rachel Maddow

I like big drinks that aren't afraid of the alcohol in them. Not big in size, but in flavor, and the way I can allow myself to enjoy them is by making them in very small quantities. I make tiny glasses of very big drinks. — Rachel Maddow

These are career non-partisan apolitical staffers with a combined 150 years of experience at the State Department gone, just like that right off the top [right after Secretary Rex Tillerson was sworn in]. — Rachel Maddow

Sarah Palin is now the guy who hangs out in the high school parking lot, showing off his car, five years after he graduated. — Rachel Maddow

But there's a reason that we have different laws for juveniles than we do for adults. And it's because kids are not liable for the things they do in the way that adults are, because we think that kids are different. — Rachel Maddow

The Republican front-runner, has made a name for himself in the last months by trafficking prejudice and paranoia. His latest insult is his call to stop all Muslims from entering the United States. — Rachel Maddow

The artificial primacy of defense among our national priorities is a constant unearned windfall for some, but it's privation for the rest of America; it steals from what we could be and can do. In Econ 101, they teach that the big-picture fight over national priorities is guns versus butter. Now it's butter versus margarine—guns get a pass. Overall, we're weaker for it, and at enormous cost. — Rachel Maddow

John McCain from the very beginning has been unflinchingly loyal to Sarah Palin. He has never thrown her under the bus. He has never conceded it was a bad decision to pick her. He has never ever said a bad word against her. — Rachel Maddow

The idea of the Overton Window of using people on the political fringe to change the terms of acceptable debate, that`s an idea that`s been hugely influential in conservative politics since Joseph P. Overton thought it up, making radical ideas seem acceptable by advocating for the unthinkable. — Rachel Maddow

I never thought when I was a kid that I would become an adult. I never thought of myself as having any sort of distant horizon. I have sort of leapt without a master plan. — Rachel Maddow

When Conservatives crusade against government while they are trying to be appointed to head the government, I think that's weird! — Rachel Maddow

"Red Dawn" was a movie made in 1984 I think about World War III. If you have not seen it and plan on watching it, you want to close your eye and cover your ears but not really. You can figure it out. — Rachel Maddow

The [Donald] Trump administration got rid of the number one and number two most senior people ahead of [Dan fried] in the foreign service, so that did make him the most senior person still standing - but now he`s out, too. — Rachel Maddow

What I`m starting to think of as the mythical beast of the Republican establishment, which is the sort of inchoate idea that we keep talking about what they`re going to do and it never seems to have much impact or be manifest in very visible ways, obviously, it is one thing for Donald Trump to have taken a shot like he did early in his campaign at John McCain, calling him not a war hero. — Rachel Maddow

I care a lot about what my girlfriend thinks, and my friends, but ultimately it's me in the mirror. I just want to be proud of what I do. — Rachel Maddow

I don't want to be president. Like, "Today your job is Libya, Japan, unemployment, the government shutdown - oh, and by the way, Yemen, Syria and Jordan. That's your job today. And you'd better get it right." — Rachel Maddow

the American public has been delicately insulated from the actuality of our ongoing wars. While a tiny fraction of men and women fighting our wars are deploying again and again, civilian life remains pretty much isolated in cost-free complacency. — Rachel Maddow

We do not need to endorse that [agains Muslims]type of activity nor should we. — Rachel Maddow

There's no way to tweak your content in order to goose ratings. You do what you're good at and let people follow you. — Rachel Maddow

The downside of playing dumb is that you sound dumb. — Rachel Maddow

[Dan fried] is the department`s foremost Russia expert and he, too, is now leaving at a time when arguably the State Department needs it most, the State Department will not have the benefit of his insight going forward. — Rachel Maddow

CNN recently ran a sort of roundup article on why some conservatives say that Trump talk is fascist. The roundup included this tweet from Iowa Republican radio host, very influential guy in Iowa Republican caucuses, Steve Deace. Quote, "If [Barack] Obama proposed the same religion registry as Trump, every conservative in the country would call it what it is - creeping fascism." — Rachel Maddow

After Donald Trump`s ban all Muslims proposal, candidate Jeb Bush reacted by calling Mr. Trump unhinged. However, that would be the same Jeb Bush who says we should only allow refugees into this country who are Christians. — Rachel Maddow

I don't feel passionately about politics, i'm not a political person. Is it easy for me to get fired up about someone's position on climate change? No, it's not. On most of these issues, I can see both sides. — Rachel Maddow

Two committees in the house were up all night long trying to get a version of the repeal of the Affordable Care Act passed. House Republicans are just fighting tooth and nail to pass it in the House, to try to get it into the Senate, to try to make it then so that the Senate will get on board. But you know who one of the Republican senators is who`s not on board with this anymore? Senator Tom Cotton. — Rachel Maddow

I think scandal probably attracted more American attention to Formula 1 than anything else in American news in decades. And that`s because it was a sex scandal, a particularly lurid sex scandal involving this guy Max Mosley. — Rachel Maddow

A Russian citizen who worked for the [Donald] Trump campaign manager in Ukraine, worked for Paul Manafort when Manafort was working in Ukraine, that Russian citizen visited the United States around the time of the Republican convention. — Rachel Maddow

I think it's both annoying and beneficial that there's so much freedom online. — Rachel Maddow

That was like seeing a dodo and a unicorn all wrapped up in one — Rachel Maddow

Sir Oswald Mosley thought his job is not just keep Britain from going to war with his beloved Germany, he saw it as his job to organize a complementary fascist movement inside the U.K. So, he formed this organization as the British Union of Fascists in `32. In 1936, they changed their name to the British Union of Fascists and National Socialists — Rachel Maddow

[To Timothy LaHaye:] So, Mr. LaHaye, when the Rapture happens, can I have your stuff? — Rachel Maddow

Anything I really want I can find online. — Rachel Maddow

I am too old to know how to put a naked photograph of myself on the Internet. — Rachel Maddow

As secretary of state you can go out in a helmet if you want to. Even in Switzerland in front of reporters. — Rachel Maddow

What's insulting to the American people, the Senate, to this whole process is that the Republicans, with all other nominees, have said Democrats are being obstructionist for wanting to see documents, for wanting to see a paper trail, for wanting to get questions answered in the judiciary committee hearings, and now all of a sudden, the Republicans want those things for this. — Rachel Maddow

You know just because you don't like the way it sounds when I say it or you don't like my haircut or you don't like that I'm gay, it does not mean that what we say is not true. If you squint a little bit, it is true I do sometimes look like a dude, and I am definitely gay. — Rachel Maddow

The John Podesta WikiLeaks dump came just about one hour after the "Access Hollywood" tape was published. The "I like to grab them by the p-word" tape, one hour after that came out is when WikiLeaks dropped the first tranche of John Podesta e-mails hacked by the Russians. — Rachel Maddow

When Vladimir Putin runs up against American power and American criticism and American leadership that reminds him of what Russia isn`t, when he runs up against people who he worries are funding his dissidents or supporting protests against him, when he runs up against criticism of the way he runs his own country, what he`s running up against is the State Department. — Rachel Maddow

We are willing to follow leaders only to the extent we believe they call on our best, not our worst. — Rachel Maddow

Silencing the U.S. State Department, putting a friend of Vladimir Putin`s in charge at the U.S. State Department, who stands by quietly while the State Department gets hollowed out, gets gutted, that`s a dream for the Russian government, right? That`s a dream for Putin. — Rachel Maddow

So this is the only TV show in America where I am quite confident that you, the audience, will share my excitement when I tell you that coming up in our next segment, we have the best graph ever. Best graph ever. — Rachel Maddow

[Tom Cotton] has been an absolute champion of the idea of getting rid of Obamacare, scrapping the Affordable Care Act. — Rachel Maddow

David Petraeus, the best known American general of his generation. After commanding the American war effort in both Iraq and Afghanistan, he was serving as CIA director when he stepped down suddenly following revelations that he`d had an extramarital affair. That same investigation that turned up evidence of the affair also eventually turned up evidence that General. Petraeus had passed classified information to his mistress. — Rachel Maddow

Life Lessons by Rachel Maddow

1. Rachel Maddow has shown that it is possible to be both a successful journalist and an advocate for social change. She has demonstrated that it is possible to use the power of the media to bring attention to important issues and to fight for justice.
2. Through her work, Maddow has shown that it is possible to challenge the status quo and to speak truth to power, even in the face of adversity. She has also shown that it is possible to use facts and evidence to make a compelling argument and to challenge the narrative of those in power.
3. Maddow has also demonstrated that it is possible to be an independent voice in the media, and to use her platform to challenge the mainstream narrative and to give a voice to the voiceless. She has shown that