How to Test Negative for Stupid Quotes

“Ask Americans how many senators it takes to solve a problem, and they’ll say, “We don’t know. It’s never happened.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Schools are for education, not indoctrination.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“the brain is an amazing organ—it starts working in the mother’s womb and doesn’t stop until you get elected to Congress.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“I would describe the atmosphere as a circus without a tent.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“It’s been almost nine years since those warnings, and I haven’t stopped talking. Why? Because only dead fish go with the flow. Because every advancement in art, science, philosophy, medicine, technology, cooking, and golf happened after someone challenged the rules and said, There’s a better way. Because my people sent me to this place to solve problems, not make new friends.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Don’t be part of the problem—be the whole problem.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“What you do is what you believe and everything else is just cottage cheese.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“My name is John Kennedy. That’s really my name. I’m a United States senator, though I have tried to rise above it. For as long as I can remember, one thing has been true about me: I have the right to remain silent, but not the ability. In America, we are free to believe what we want, and to say it out loud. You are not free if you can’t express yourself. You’re not free if you can’t say what you think. So, I do. That makes some people mad, but I try not to worry too much about what anyone thinks of me. Except dogs. I really like dogs.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“The job isn’t just about advancing good ideas—it’s also about killing bad ones.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Clockwork Orange.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Governor Edwards quipped, “The only way I can lose this election is if I’m caught in bed with either a dead girl or a live boy.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“An eye for an eye just leaves both sides blind. Nobody wins.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“One day I got a call from a dentist in Denham Springs, just east of Baton Rouge, about an advertisement I had placed in the real estate section of the newspaper for my father, whose health was failing. My father owned a small office building in Zachary with two suites. He worked out of one and rented the other. “I’ve been to the office,” said the dentist, “and I’m very interested.” We agreed on the price and he told me to send him a draft of the lease. I did, but when I called him about it he had no changes. I remember thinking that this was odd, because my leases are tough, but I just figured he was anxious to move in. After he signed the lease and mailed it back to me, he called me and said, “Mr. Kennedy, there’s just one more thing. I lost my dental license because of some spurious and unfounded allegations against me, and in order for me to move into the building and pay your dad rent, I’m going to need my dental license back. Can you help?” I was dumbstruck. But that’s when I knew. Right away, I told him the deal was off. I told him I was going to tear up the lease and he should never call me again. I was embarrassed at how gullible I had been. But I didn’t know better back then. When you have no firsthand experience with graft, you don’t see it coming. I had always been an optimist. I had always tried to see the best in people. After that, I became a slightly paranoid optimist.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“My dad always told me, “Son, you’ll never know love until you have a child. It’s not like the love for a parent, or a spouse, or a sibling.” At the time, I had no frame of reference, so I didn’t get it. Preston reminds me every day of my dad’s wisdom. He was, of course, correct. I probably would have spent my career in New Orleans, practicing and teaching law—if not for one phone call.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“If you ever have to operate a forklift, the first thing you do after starting it is LOWER THE FORKS. I also learned another lesson: Life is hard, but it’s harder when you’re stupid. Dad worked my brothers and me assiduously to teach us the value of work and to incentivize us to go to and do well in college. But I know he worried about us, because some of the work we did could be dangerous. It was also exhausting.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Because my people sent me to this place to solve problems, not make new friends.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Senators aren’t like most teenagers; they are all over forty.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“tough as a boiled owl.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Graduate from high school, get a job, wait until you’re twenty-one to get married, and don’t have kids until after you’re married. If you do those things, your chance of being poor drops to 3 percent. That’s true no matter your race.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“I believe in lifting people up through jobs and opportunity. Others keep trying to do it through welfare and fear. Many”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“We don’t need more multicultural specialists or self-esteem experts. We need two hours of reading. Two hours of math. An hour of science, history, and social studies. And homework. If you don’t pass, you don’t get promoted. If a kid is late to school and it’s his fault, he should have to sit on the floor. Cell phones should be forbidden. And every principal should be a cross between Socrates and Dirty Harry.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Most senators also introduce “messaging bills” that have no chance of passing but play well with voters. I’ve done it. I once proposed requiring able-bodied adults on welfare who have no minor children to work twenty hours a week. Welfare, I believe, was meant to be a bridge, not a parking lot. I knew Democrats and a few Republicans wouldn’t pass it, but I wanted voters to see I tried—and maybe plant a seed in my colleagues’ minds.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Because, once more, you’re not free if you can’t say what you think, because the American people can handle the truth, and because the American people deserve the truth and they deserve it in a way that’s easy to understand.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“The interview ended, and I didn’t think much about what I said. Looking back, I think it was actually a pretty tame way to describe my initial feelings about Washington. But soon it became clear that some of my Senate colleagues did not appreciate me talking this way about the Senate and, by extension, about them. It was nothing mean or really overt, just a few casual comments from my colleagues reminding me of the importance of tradition, custom, and decorum in the United States Senate, called by many the world’s greatest deliberative body. In other words, this is not a place where you’re supposed to say the quiet part out loud.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“But I never understood any of this viscerally because I had no firsthand experience. I never understood that as bizarre as Washington looks from the outside, you have to see it from the inside to understand its turpitude. Not everyone, thank God, is like this. It’s important that you understand that. But a lot of them are. And I certainly did not understand that a senator is not supposed to go to Washington and say all of this out loud. I figured that part out the hard way.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“You are not free if you can’t express yourself. You’re not free if you can’t say what you think.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“People don’t care about how much you know until they know how much you care.”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“If you hate cops just because they’re cops”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Life has taught me that when you get so tired you feel like you can’t go on”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will

“Welfare”
― John Kennedy, How to Test Negative for Stupid: And Why Washington Never Will