List of Donna Shalala Quotes

Sure, It Is Apparent That Presidents Are Looking At Polls, But They Are Also Stepping Up On Issues. President Clinton Stepped Up On Tobacco. He Shaped The Polls On The Tobacco Issue.

By Putting People Around Me Who Will Calm Me Down And Slow Me Down And Make Sure I Work Through An Issue.

You Don't Want To Destroy The Energy That Comes Out Of A Campaign.

I Bring Other Constituencies - I Also Have Ties To Minority Communities. And Obviously, To The World Of World-class Research Universities. So I Can Bring Some Constituencies That I'm Used To Working With.

We Have Not Yet Concluded That Needle-exchange Programs Do Not Encourage Drug Use.

We Can't Afford As A Nation - Not Because Of Money But Because Of Our Social Fabric - To Have Large Numbers Of People Who Are Not Working.

We Know The Parental Support, Community Support, Makes A Difference. It's Not Just The Metrics Of Testing And Putting Pressure On The Schools And On The Teachers.

I Would Argue That We Have A Generation Of Young People, Particularly Minorities, Who Are No Longer Putting Up With The Kinds Of Things Their Parents Put Up With. They're Much More Self-confident. It's No Longer Acceptable To Make Fun Of People Because Of Race Or Sex. But It Has Always Been Present In American Society.

I Compensate For Big Risks By Always Doing My Homework And Being Well-prepared. I Can Take On Larger Risks By Reducing The Overall Risk.

We Need To Drive Down Requirements For The Schools. In The 19th Century, We Increased The Quality Of The Schools By Higher Education Saying, 'you Can't Come In Unless You Have These Skills, Unless You've Taken These Courses.' We Did That In Wisconsin When I Was There, It Helped To Transform The Secondary School System.

I Have To Admit, In January And February I Was In An Absolute Fuzz. I Had No One On Board. It Wasn't That I Didn't Know What I Was Doing, But We Didn't Have All The Pieces Put Together.

What You Really Remember At The Beginning Was That You Have To Throw A Budget Together. We Made Some Terrible Mistakes At The Beginning In My Own Budget That Took Us At Least A Year To Catch Up On.

We Have To Mainstream Everybody. No Matter What Their Circumstances When They Were Growing Up. Part Of That Is Knowing That After They're Finished With School, Everybody In This Country Gets Up And Goes To Work.

Sometimes I'll Trust My Gut More Than My Head. Logical Information Might Lead Me In One Direction And My Feelings In Another. Whereas I Would Have Followed My Head Ten Years Ago, Now I'm As Likely Or More Likely To Go With My Gut Feeling. It's Ironic - You'd Think The Opposite Would Be True As You Move To The Top But It's Not.

I Think Anyone That Thought That We Were Coming In As A Bunch Of Liberal Democrats To Deliver More Large-scale Social Programs Was Nuts. I Sure Didn't Expect It.

I Think President Bush Tried To Step Up On Social Security Even Though The Polls Showed That Was Unpopular. He Has Not Been Successful And Backed Off, But I Admire People Who Take On Big Problems.

I'll Be One Of The Spokespeople, One Of The People Who Sells The Administration's Plans.

Every Year, I Am Reminded Of The Kids Who Aren't In The Freshman Class And Aren't Graduating. I Remember Every Single One Of Them. That Is The Worst Of Times For Me, To See The Future Snuffed Out.

I'm Pretty Disciplined And Am Almost Always On Schedule.

The Government Is Fully Capable Of Delivering Services. Even Complex Services.

We Are Living Longer, And We Need To Live Better.

In Every Community, Whether Large Or Small, There Are People Who Lead In Their Community In Easy And Difficult Times.

I've Spent My Whole Life With People Underestimating Me.

Sex Education Has To Do With What's In People's Head.