Ben Sasse

“Republicans must sell a big-cause, problem-solving vision - low-ego and happy-warrior in tone.”

“Our pandering politicians compete to add names to the dependency of entitlement rolls instead of evaluating the success of these programs by how many people leave the dole and are restored to an independence. And these bulging entitlements are saddling our offspring with unsustainable generational debt.”

“Rising political tribalism, shamelessly exaggerating our opponents' claims or behavior, is leaving us vulnerable: No one loves America's internal fighting - and our increasingly siloed news consumption - more than Vladimir Putin.”

“At our house we have come to conclude that building and strengthening character will require extreme measures and the intentional pursuit of gritty work experiences.”

“When I was a kid, we had airconditioning in the house... but we never used it.”

“The first time I began to really think about politics was in fifth grade, during President Reagan's first term.”

“Before becoming a college president, I helped over a dozen organizations find strategies to get through some very ugly crises.”

“I think we should have a universal, a shared cultural or societal goal, of universal health insurance coverage. That's completely different from saying the government can solve all of those problems, or that it can micromanage every aspect of the health delivery system. I think we know that it can't do that.”

“Persevering and getting through hardship makes you tough, and at our house we celebrate stitches. As long as we didn't do permanent damage to their spine that's going to have lasting effect, we applaud and celebrate stitches at our house.”

“Politics matter, but politics can't come first. If politics come first in your life, something is wrong with you. It's a sad thing.”

“The longest-term thought many people have in D.C. is how can I be sure I don't do anything that so annoys either my base or my general electorate that I might not be able to get my job back? I don't think that's the right way to think about it.”

“Good history is good story-telling. And good story-telling demands empathy; it requires understanding different actors, differing motivations, competing goals.”

“Farmers and ranchers need long-term certainty about who they will be able to sell to and under what terms.”

“We should be reforming our entitlement programs to empower people.”

“Becoming a reader grows our horizons, our appetite for the good, the true and the beautiful, and our empathy.”

“Most healthy people want to coach Little League, they want to go to church and they want to have great coworkers at the office and they want to put on faceplate when Nebraska's point football on Saturdays. That's the most natural way to live.”

“Deepfakes - seemingly authentic video or audio recordings that can spread like wildfire online - are likely to send American politics into a tailspin, and Washington isn't paying nearly enough attention to the very real danger that's right around the corner.”

“You know, my Uber driver rating is 10,000. People tell me it's the best rating. It's fantastic, believe me.”

“Nebraska Republicans believe that Nebraska Democrats love their kids, and I believe we can have a constructive conversation with everybody.”

“For a Nebraska kid in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Nebraska football was a quasi-religion, so I ran out to get The Omaha World-Herald every morning, salivating for the sports page. My dad, however, required that I read one front page story and one editorial before I was allowed to turn to the sports.”