Quotes by Bruce Babbitt (born June 27, 1938)

Bruce Babbitt Quotes

- I grew up in the West, grew up on the land, was educated as a geologist. And I came here with a vision of what it is we ought to be doing.

- I look back on it, yeah, I'm in a much worse financial position than I was eight years ago. I'm going to have to go out at age 62 and kind of readdress some of that.

- I think the people will- who advocate having a step back and read those public opinion polls on the front page of the newspapers all over this country saying public supports restoration in restoration of the Everglades, protection of the parks and the creation of monuments.

- I wouldn't miss this opportunity for anything. For the chance to work on these conservation issues, to serve my country, to work for this president, I'd do it all over again, every single minute.

- I'm going to go out and get everybody together and say I think we ought to protect this for generations to come. Now, let's get down to work and walk the land and talk about the conflicts and get everybody involved.

- It is like living in a wilderness of mirrors. No fact goes unchallenged.

- Look, I think by the time my case was over and other ones, everybody on both sides of the aisle in Congress said we can't run a government by this kind of process and they repealed the law and that's good.

- Look, this job has always been a crucible of conflict.

- No kidding. That's really true. You're paying your own bills through this. It's not a pleasant experience.

- Obviously I wouldn't have said that three or four years ago in the midst of it. But I really believe that. It's been a marvelous and important experience.

- Protecting all this land, working with the President to establish all these monuments, to, you know... I think the President has a land protection record that's second to no one in this century, maybe Teddy Roosevelt.

- The Northwest is in better shape than it was eight years ago.

- There's a basic kind of tension here. It's between those who say, I'd like to clear cut this forest and reduce it to saw timber because that's an economically productive thing for me to do.

- They haul you up there for, you know, week after week in this kind of star chamber proceeding. Then at the end of it they say, well, we found nothing, but now it's time for special counsel.

- This isn't just about today, this about generations to come. And you've got a chance to be the greatest conservation President since Theodore Roosevelt, and I think he's done it.

- We had kind of a rocky start, but I spent a lot of time working with the President and handing him statistics and showing him what we were doing as we went along and kind of saying to him, you know, this is really important.

- We have an obligation to live in harmony with creation, with our capital... with God's creation. And we need to administer and work that very carefully.

- We have to preserve it and use it sustainably. And the short-term use of resources at the destruction of the long-term heritage of this country is not a policy that we can pursue.

- We've set aside tens of millions of acres of those northwestern forests for perpetuity. The unemployment rate has gone not up, but down. The economy has gone up.

- Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.

- Well, I think breathing life into the Endangered Species Act, taking those wolves back into Yellowstone, restoring the salmon in the rivers of the Pacific Northwest.

- Well, it's not a pleasant experience. And it's a terribly political process, because that thing was initiated by the Congress and by, you know, our adversaries in the Congress.

- Well, what I tried to do is simply to get out on the land. And when I came to Washington, I think one of the mistakes we made early on was kind of having an ideological dispute up in the Congress.

- What I finally did in 1995 was I said, I'm going to get out of this town and I'm going to go out West.

- What we've proven is that you can protect the environment, use it wisely and grow the economy and that there is no conflict between the two.

- The proposed state non-game wildlife grants mark a real first in national conservation history, ... Never before has Washington offered a dedicated source of federal funding to the states for them to tailor programs benefiting all wildlife.

- It's a very tough situation, ... We've got two, three more weeks, maybe a month of fire season, and the weather prognosis is not very good.

- This is sacred ground, ... Americans come here to learn of their past . . . their heritage. It is our obligation . . . to honor this sacred landscape by preserving it.

- Mistakes began with the preparation of the prescribed fire plan, ... Had those calculations been properly done, there would have been a larger background personnel and support (team on hand).

- With those mistakes embedded in it, the process began with the agency and participants behind the curve.

- The study process was able to point us toward a balance, based on good science and broad consultation, ... Whenever a balance is struck there are going to be those who will be displeased.

- We've got to do something to make these folks whole,

- I think what he will be remembered for most in history is the way he connected with regular people and brought the mystery and beauty of oceans into our personal lives,

- In recent years the Forest Service and land management agencies have been burning about 2 to 2 1/2 million acres a year with prescribed fires,

- Every successful prescribed fire is a blow for safety in surrounding communities and for forest health. These forests are made safer by periodic fires -- a natural part of the evolution, growth and maintenance of healthy forests,

- It's a hopeful message that we have found ways to live in balance with God's creation and with all the nature around us,

- In the spirit of the Christmas season I'm delivering a gift to the mining industry,

- This process has gone from distasteful to obscene,

- It's going to be a long tough summer, ... There's no relief in sight. We've got September and October to go.

- we're pushing 5 million acres.

- Had those calculations been properly done there would have been a larger background personnel and support, ... With those mistakes embedded in it, the process began with the (Forest Service) agency and participants behind the curve.

- It's clear that there were large mistakes of agency oversight. Lessons must be learned from this.

- This is not about turning people away from the park, ... The problem is not that there's too many people. The problem is there's too many cars.

- Campaign contributions should have nothing to do with a decision like this and they didn't. A personal relationship with the secretary of the Interior should have nothing to do with a decision like this and it didn't,

- Efforts to obscure the truth will not and cannot change the facts,

- Barry Goldwater and the Grand Canyon stand together; both unique, both monumental, both among the very best of God's creation. And I believe Barry Morris Goldwater will be remembered as long as each morning the sun continues to rise over the Grand Canyon,

- As deeply as gold or the grizzly bear, wild salmon infuse California's past, ... But through our collective will, today we help ensure that salmon swim on into our future. For they are not merely commodities, or emblems for a flag. Wild salmon are vital members of creation who enrich our landscapes, inspiring us through their upstream journey from sea to Sierra.

- If that's not a national problem, what is? ... And all we get from our national leaders is silence and evasion.

Read More Bruce Babbitt Quotes....