Quotes from Edward Brooke

I can't serve just the Negro cause. I've got to serve all the people of Massachusetts.

Fred Thompson was a law partner of mine.

I want to be elected on my own ability. Only then do you have progress... People should not use race as a basis for labelling me.

I've never tried to run away from my race. I was born a black man. You know that in your bones as soon as you are able to understand this country... My approach to life about race is, I don't see the difference between black people and white people.

In elective politics, it's up or out. You go up the ladder, or you get out of the game.

My parents taught me that racial prejudice is a sin, one that robs the world of great minds and talents.

The polarization of Congress; the decline of civility; and the rise of attack politics in the 1980s, the 1990s, and the early years of the new century are a blot on our political system and a disservice to the American people.

Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, and I found that out when I was Attorney General in Massachusetts.

Richard Nixon was a very complex man. I don't think he was a conservative, nor liberal, not even a moderate. He was a pragmatic politician. He loved politics.

My entire life has been devoted to breaking down barriers, to finding common ground.

President Nixon has lost his effectiveness as the leader of this country, primarily because he has lost the confidence of the people.

I am not a civil rights leader, and I don't profess to be one.

In my state, the Republican Party was the most progressive party.

My campaign confirmed my belief that although there are bigots in America, whose hateful rhetoric seizes the media's attention, the vast majority of people do not harbor such prejudice.

When I left the Senate in 1979, there were several publishers who had approached me about writing an autobiography, and I knew that politicians write books for many reasons, but at that time, I just thought I wasn't ready and my story wasn't over, and I knew I had a new life ahead of me.

I wanted to go to Washington to bring people together who had never been together before. I wanted to break down the barriers between races.

Politics is not a tea party. When it is time to act, you have to move fast and decisively.

I was entirely comfortable reaching across the Senate aisle to work with Democrats.

When most presidents get in, they move to the center because they realize that this is a centrist country - even Reagan.

I was one of God's chosen few, no doubt about it. Not only being elected, but the joy and pleasure I derived from it. It was a wonderful life.

I had male breast cancer and had dual radical modified mastectomy, and I've spent a lot of time working with the Susan G. Komen foundation to make men aware of male breast cancer - if you have breast tissue, you can have breast cancer.

I had made my reputation on integrity.

I grew up segregated, but there was not much feeling of being shut out of anything.

I don't intend to leave the Republican Party, but I would like to move the Republican Party more to the center.