Martin O'Malley Quotations

The death penalty is ineffective as a deterrent, and the appeals process is expensive and cruel to the surviving family members.

The most valuable investment we can make is in our children's education. When we make education a priority, we give our children opportunity. Opportunity to learn at higher levels than their parents were able to learn; to earn at higher levels than we were able to earn.

In times of adversity - for the country we love - Maryland always chooses to move forward. Progress is a choice. Job creation is a choice. Whether we move forward or back: this too is a choice.

Reversing deforestation is complicated; planting a tree is simple.

God doesn't make mistakes and has made each of us in his own image. God is simply love. There should be no fear in love.

Progress is a choice. Job creation is a choice. Whether we give our children a future of more or a future of less - this, too, is a choice.

Typically, I don't get to unwind after a day at work.

Roads do not upgrade or maintain themselves. Bridges do not repair themselves or rebuild themselves.

The most fearless hearts, the audacious dreamers, have always maintained a sense of optimism that often flies in the face of the available evidence.

Our parents and grandparents understood this truth deeply. They believed - as we do - that to create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments: educating, innovating and rebuilding for our children's future. Building an economy to last, from the middle class up, not from the billionaires down.

If there is a thread that unites all of our work, whether it's in Iowa or whether it's in Maryland or whether it's among our young men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan, I believe that it's the thread of human dignity.

So, look, in order to move our country forward, we have to do the things our parents and grandparents did. They believed enough in our country to invest in our country, to create jobs, to make modern investments. And those are the things that we need to get back to with a balanced approach.

Together with President Obama, we are moving America forward, not back.

In 2013, Maryland had the second highest job creation rate of any state in the Mid Atlantic region - faster than both Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Climate change is transforming the world in profound ways that continue to evolve.

We make our own future; we govern ourselves, and to govern is to choose.

I believe that we do our country a disservice when we make it harder for new American immigrants to abide by the rules of the road and obtain drivers licenses.

Maryland first allowed early voting during the 2010 primary elections. In November 2012, more than 16 percent of registered voters in Maryland cast their ballots during the early voting period, and some polling places, particularly in our larger jurisdictions, witnessed early voting lines that were hours long.

If we want better results, we have to make better choices.

The right to vote gives every eligible American a voice in our electoral politics. There's too much at stake to stay silent as this right is eroded.

All of us, wherever we happen to stand on the marriage equality issue, can agree that all our children deserve the opportunity to live in a loving, caring, committed, and stable home, protected equally under the law.

Facts are facts: No president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the Great Depression inherited a worse economy, bigger job losses or deeper problems from his predecessor. But President Obama is moving America forward, not back.

I am not surprised that this is a longer bit of work than many of us would have hoped. It is not where any of us would have hoped it is. And I think we need to give credit to the Republicans in Congress who have done everything they can to defeat every jobs bill and slow down the economy.

The way forward is always found through greater respect for the equal rights of all.

Every child should be given a strong start to their education.

When I was in Grade 9, there was an election for high school president, and one of the candidates told us that if we elected him, he would abolish homework. He promised this to the entire student body from the stage in the school gymnasium.

We are already witnessing a transformation in the U.S. economy to increased production of lower carbon energy through fuel switching to natural gas and expansion of wind, solar, geothermal, and other renewable non-carbon intensive energy sources.

There are more repercussions for a person being a chronic speeding violator in our country, than there is for a big bank being a chronic violator of S.E.C. rules!

There are some rights that are so fundamental to our society that you'd think the public debate would be closed on them. The right of every American citizen to vote - regardless of age, race, or income level - is one of them.

We live in a very different world than the one that we inherited from our parents and from our grandparents. Times are changing, and states must adapt to win.

When you create an economy where you subsidize corporate profits through a welfare program and food stamps in order to keep wages low in some perverse pursuit of 'competiveness,' than you reap the fruits of the anger that you sow.

There are times in Annapolis when a governor's support can move an issue over the goal line.

There are people in whole parts of our cities who are being totally left behind and disregarded. They are unheard. They are told they are unneeded by this economy. And that extreme poverty breeds conditions for extreme violence.

Making government more efficient and more effective need not be a partisan issue.

Let's talk about policing and public safety. Let's debate what works and what does not. We must abandon practices that do not work, and do more of the things that actually do work to save lives.

Leadership is about making the right decision and the best decision before, sometimes, it becomes entirely popular.

Senator Mikulski has done an outstanding job representing Maryland in the U.S. Senate for nearly 30 years.

Secretary Clinton is perfectly capable of defending her own service in office.

None of us wants to pay more at the pump.

My all-time favourite political promise - more a boast than a promise, really - came from former Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau, who said in the lead-up to the 1976 Olympics, 'The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby.'

I believe that the best way to campaign is one-on-one with people.

I believe that there are new perspectives that are needed in order for us to resolve the problems that we face as Americans and also the problems we face as people on this planet, and I believe that new perspective and new leadership is needed.

I have 15 years of executive experience as a big-city mayor and as a governor.

I did not dedicate my life to making Baltimore a safer and more just place because it was easy.

Gilles Duceppe avoids making campaign promises altogether so he can emphasize that his Bloc Quebecois has only one objective: to prevent Harper from forming a majority government.

If any mayor reduced school funding by 33 percent and called it the 'Strengthening Our Schools Initiative,' I think they'd be excoriated.

If a bank's too big so that it can't fail without hurting our economy, well then, it's too big.

If workers have less money in their pockets to put food on the table, they will be spending less money; your economy will suffer.

We can never completely prevent another tragedy like the Boston Marathon attacks from happening. But every American should ask themselves if their community is as prepared as it could be.

There is no greater ladder into the middle class than education.

To create jobs, a modern economy requires modern investments.

History is full of times when the inevitable front-runner is inevitable right up until he or she is no longer inevitable.

There is an adage in business that says that you should only compete when you have a competitive advantage. When it comes to cybersecurity, Maryland has a whole host of competitive advantages.

kind of surge that the experts only said would come from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, direct hit.

Job creation is a choice. Investing in cleaner, greener technologies that allow us to strike a more sustainable balance with the other living systems of this earth - this, too, is a choice.

I think the best campaigns are campaigns of ideas and substance.

I think it's really, really important to grow the consensus and to realize that there is always some value that can be shared with another American, on any issue. Starting from those points of common belief and shared values is very, I think, important to forging the consensus that allows these issues to more forward.

I think that they did not take into account the vulnerability of America's ports. I think Congress needs to have further hearings on these things.

I think that the S.E.C. has been pretty feckless when it comes to reigning in reckless behavior on Wall Street.

People are looking for a leader independent of powerful, wealthy special interests that always push to the front of the line.

Our story, Maryland's story, is the story of better choices and better results.

Our politics has been greatly impacted, for the worse, by big money and the concentration of big money.

Maryland schools succeed because we have never stopped investing in our students and doing the things that work.

Maryland is home to one of the world's most highly skilled, highly educated workforces.

Maryland is among the nation's most vulnerable states to the effects of sea level rise from climate change, and we are taking strong action to reduce carbon pollution.

Marylanders have led the nation in adopting a balanced approach to revenues and investments because we know that in order to maintain and build the #1 public schools in the nation, we had to ask everyone to pay their fair share. We need Congress to do the same.

I think former President Clinton and even Newt Gingrich have said it was a mistake to repeal Glass Steagall.

I think it would be an extreme poverty indeed if there weren't more than one person willing to compete for the presidential nomination of the Democratic Party.

Justice must be done in investigating the tragic death of Mr. Freddie Gray. His family deserves our deepest sympathy and respect for their loss, and our admiration for their courage in calling us, as a city, to act as our better selves.

The answers to feeding hungry children is not fewer dollars to feed hungry children, it's to do more. It is to raise the minimum wage. It is to increase, not dismantle, the earned income tax credit. It is to make college more affordable for more middle class families, not more expensive. These are the things that grow our middle class.

I was motivated to go into public life because of the great chasm that exists between justice and injustice in our country. Nowhere is that divide greater than in America's cities.

When the citizens of Baltimore banded together to repel the British during the War of 1812, three in five were immigrants, and one in five was black - some were free, some slaves.

Who can sit back as our towns and cities are torn apart by violence and be content with the status quo?

We can't expect Wall Street to police itself - that's why we have a federal government.

While different states and cities might look to different strategies for protecting public safety, we all can agree on this: we lose too many American lives to gun violence.

We must preserve our planet and grow our economy simultaneously. We cannot become more prosperous without the living systems upon which our prosperity depends.

We have to wrap this imperative of addressing climate change in a prosperity framework, and secondly we have to do a much better job of putting forward an American jobs agenda that's a match for the climate challenge.

We have not recovered all that we lost in the Bush recession. That's why we need to continue to move forward.

We haven't had an agenda for American cities probably since at least Jimmy Carter. We have left cities to fend for themselves.

The presidency of the United States is not some crown to be passed between two families.

We should not try to make the federal government our first responders, ... But when a disaster of the size of this hurricane hits, we should have better mechanisms in place that allow our federal government to restore order and provide relief.

We have concentrated wealth and capital to such a degree that the vast majority of us don't have the discretionary dollars to make our economy go and grow.

There is no reason that billionaires should crowd us out from our democracy.

There is no legislative change that can be made to make up for an economy that's not growing and not expanding.

There is not a country on earth that could get its fiscal house in order by shrinking opportunity and depressing growth.

Twenty-first century buildings support a 21st century education - because it is difficult to learn or to teach if you are shivering.

We do ourselves a disservice when some of us cave to the myth that Social Security somehow drives the deficit.

We are a people of many different religions and many different faiths. The only way forward in a pluralistic society of diverse faiths such as ours is to have laws that protect and respect the freedom of all, equally.

Between 1999 and 2009, the people of Baltimore achieved the greatest reduction in crime of America's largest cities.

I've been an executive and a progressive executive with a record of accomplishments.

Some people see Baltimore as a hopeless place. Some have even made a lot of money on it.

Protecting our land, our air and our water is a very important thing that we can only do together.

Putting middle class families in jeopardy in order to protect the wealthiest among us isn't consistent with the values and priorities that most Americans share.

Putting aside competitive interests for a new kind of collaboration, Maryland pioneered a real-time encounter notification service to alert primary care doctors when their patients are hospitalized.

Progressive leaders always try to take action on the forward edge of that movement, movement toward greater respect for the equal rights of all.

People's trust in their public institutions depends on their government getting results.

The Offshore Wind Energy Act could be not only a jobs creator, but also a history maker.

Some people might look at Baltimore, from afar, and see nothing but hopelessness. I see, in Baltimore, tremendously good and compassionate people, and a tremendous opportunity to save a lot a lives.

No woman who works full time and plays by the rules should have to raise her family in poverty.

Oh, you know what, it's an honor to be mentioned in the company of those that might lead our country forward after President Obama.