Cory Booker

“Minorities do not believe this country will give them a fair shake.”

“The beauty of having your ego checked as many times as my ego was checked in Newark made me recognize how much I needed other people who were very different than me in order to get big things done.”

“While most men don't have first-hand experience with gender-based discrimination, we can still be powerful allies for advancing women's rights. We need to do a better job of listening to women and standing up for what's right, even when it's not popular or comfortable.”

“As a vegetarian eating a plateful of eggs, I found myself in this weird place where I didn't want to think about where those eggs came from. I didn't want to think about the treatment of the animals who produced those eggs. When I find myself trying not to think about things, it seems to me that I'm practicing avoidance.”

“After Yale Law School, I was proud to try to live up to my parents' example and began my career working for The Urban Justice Center in the streets of Newark, organizing residents to fight for better housing conditions.”

“In America we have a Declaration of Independence, but our history, our advancements, our global strength all point to an American declaration of interdependence.”

“The majority of our criminals that we lock up are non-violent offenders.”

“Our platform calls for a balanced deficit reduction plan where the wealthy pay their fair share. And when your country is in a costly war, with our soldiers sacrificing abroad and our nation facing a debt crisis at home, being asked to pay your fair share isn't class warfare - it's patriotism.”

“Americans, at our best, stand up to bullies and fight those who seek to demean and degrade others.”

“We become distracted from productive labors by our perceived opponents; we become focused on them and not on our larger calling to advance our nation; our debate becomes more about scoring points against an adversary and less about advancing our common cause.”

“We've got to get back to a country that can get things done. And my whole career has been marching and charging at and running toward some of the most difficult problems in America and finding ways to create new coalitions to get things done.”

“I live in Brick Towers, a public housing project in Newark's Central Ward. I moved in when the projects were privately owned by a man who the residents and I believed was a grade A slumlord.”

“I am happy that the urgency to reform our broken criminal justice system has found allies all across the political spectrum.”

“Kids born into certain ZIP codes will most likely have certain educational outcomes. And we've got to end that. If we end that, we explode economic development.”

“Americans are losing faith in this country's ability to work for them.”

“It's not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because somebody got under his very thin skin.”

“The greatest natural resource our country has is not oil. It's not gas. It's not coal. It's the genius of our children.”

“I'm a person that's grounded in faith and believe that my core values, motivation, inspiration, draw from a conception of the world in that way.”

“As a government leader, I'm not going to sit on the sidelines and watch all these other sectors innovate. I'm going to do everything I can as a leader to be in that innovation, to be a provocateur for that innovation.”

“When I go about my own politics, I meet Tea Party supporters who I can work with in Congress, that I find common ground with. I find Tea Party supporters who won't let me get a sentence out without judging me. To say that there is a 'Tea Party supporter' is a gross generality.”