I've spent the past month in Washington D.C. and it is terrific to be back in America.

Look, most Americans could not give a flying flip about a bunch of politicians in Washington. Who cares? You know, almost all of us are in cheap suits with bad haircuts.

Look, I'm something that's not supposed to exist. A Hispanic Republican.

If standing for liberty and standing for the Constitution make you a wacko bird, then you can count me a very proud wacko bird.

Symbolic votes are great for getting elected.

Words have meaning. What does the word ponzi scheme mean? A ponzi scheme is a system. If you and I cooked up a ponzi schem, we would have current people pay into it. We would take the money, and we would pay it out to other recipients. That's the definition of a ponzi scheme. In the English language, that is exactly how social security operates.... I think there is an effort to treat that as rhetoric, but there's no doubt that's what it is.

Let me tell you, Chuck Norris wears Jim DeMint pajamas.

I do think in the media there is a tendency to describe conservatives as one of two things: stupid or evil. And those are the two categories that every conservative gets put in by Democrats and the media. A conservative is either stupid — too dumb to know the right answer — and even worse, if they actually know the right answer, then they’re evil. They want people to suffer. I suppose I feel mildly complimented in that they have recently invented a third category, which is crazy. It’s the alternative to stupid or evil. And now crazy is the third one, because it seems inconceivable that there could be Americans who believe in free-market principles and believe in the Constitution and are working to defend them.

I'll talk until I can't stand anymore. Don't worry, I have government-run health insurance. I'll be fine.

If you look at other nations that have gone down the road towards gay marriage, that's the next step of where it gets enforced, is it gets enforced against Christian pastors who decline to perform gay marriages, who speak out and preach biblical truths on marriage, and that has been defined elsewhere as hate speech, as inconsistent with the "enlightened" view of government, and I think there is no doubt that the advocates who are driving this effort in the United States want to see us end up in that same place.

The greatest trick the Left has ever played is to convince conservatives that we cannot win.

In the 13 months I've been in the Senate, it has become apparent to me the single thing that Republican politicians hate and fear the most, and that is when they're forced to tell the truth. It makes their heads explode.

When Americans tried it, they discovered they did not like green eggs and ham and they did not like Obamacare either. They did not like Obamacare in a box, with a fox, in a house or with a mouse. It is not working.

A lot of members of this body have — at least so far — not showed up to battle. The chattering class is quick to discipline anyone who doesn't fall in line.

Let me say that the fact that the mainstream media and the New York Times is so hysterical about what I'm doing - to me frankly suggests that we're doing something right. Because I tell ya, I ain't here workin' for the New York Times.

I think it's really sad to see the president of the United States exploiting the murder of children and using it to push his own extreme anti-gun agenda.

It took Jimmy Carter to give us Ronald Reagan, and I am convinced that the long-lasting legacy of Barack Obama is a new generation of leaders in the Republican Party standing up and defending liberty and getting back on track.

It is apparently very, very important to be invited to all the right cocktail parties in town. Now, I’ll confess: I don’t go to a whole lot of cocktail parties.

Sequestration sounds like an exotic wildlife disease. Nobody has any idea what the heck that is.

When a mayor of a city chooses twice to march in a parade celebrating gay pride that's a statement and it's not a statement I agree with.

We're nearing the edge of a cliff and our window to turn things around, my friends — I don't think think it is long. I don't think it is 10 years. We have a couple of years to turn this country around or we go off the cliff to oblivion.

I think Barack Obama is an extraordinary politician. And I respect Barack Obama a great deal. I think he is committed to his principles, which is rare in politics.

We need a much better understanding of the climate before making policy choices that would impose substantial economic costs on our Nation.

It is really freezing in D.C. I have to admit I was surprised. Al Gore told us this wouldn't happen!

If you look at the last 40 years, the clearest pattern that emerges is when Republicans nominate a strong conservative as a presidential candidate, Republicans win. When Republicans nominate a candidate who runs as a moderate, Republicans lose. Now what is the conclusion of all the political consultants in Washington, looking at those last 40 years? We need to nominate a moderate. Because they’ve lost every single race for four decades.

I understand a great many people want to focus on the politics of 3½ years from now. What I can tell you is that my focus every day is on the U.S. Senate, because the Senate is the battlefield. And what I tell my staff is, if we do the right thing, the politics will take care of itself.

I am perfectly happy to compromise and work with anybody. Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians. I’ll work with Martians. If — and the if is critical — they're willing to cut spending and reduce the debt.

Let me say this, if US foreign policy is so bungled that it makes Putin seem like the good guy and an advocate for peace, we have done something very, very wrong.

You might think a camel’s hair brush must be made of camels. But a camel’s hair brush is made of squirrel fur, and it makes you wonder ... the squirrels apparently have a very bad marketing department.

I don't know if it’s the water, something in the air, the cherry blossoms, but people get here [Washington, D.C.] and they stop listening to the American people.

Twenty years from now if there is some obscure trivial pursuit question, I am confident I will be the answer