William Weld is an American politician and former Governor of Massachusetts, known for his advocacy of fiscal responsibility, government efficiency, and civil liberties. Weld's leadership emphasizes the importance of pragmatic solutions in addressing the issues facing society, inspiring politicians to act with integrity and strive for meaningful reform.

"I have come to realize that Jesse Helms stands for everything in politics that is anathema to me."


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"There are several such issues where I have departed radically from the Republican orthodoxy."



"Government can contribute to a shared sense of purpose on the part of the citizenry; that's its highest and best application."



"We absolutely have to restrain concentrations of wealth in industry from spoiling the situation for everybody."



"If we have major geographic areas within our continent that have a tremendous lack of economic opportunity, we found that that is going to produce instability _ economic, political and social."



"In the nineteenth century, slavery was the greatest wrong, and government never stood so tall as when it was redressing that wrong."



"My slogan when I ran was that there is no such thing as government money, there is only taxpayer's money, and that cut pretty deep."



"Before my tenure, people didn't seem to think that citizens had a right to limit the size of their government."



"One of the functions of government is to act as a safeguard not just of property but of our liberties."



"The system that had grown up in most states is that wealthy districts with an affluent population can afford to spend a lot more on their public school systems than the poorer districts."



"Natural resources are so vast that no single individual or business is going to protect them; they don't have an incentive to."



"It's healthy for government to be a kind of moral catalyst, using the bully pulpit of high office."



"I think coercive taxation is theft, and government has a moral duty to keep it to a minimum."



"Liberals often don't see the problems, and conservatives don't see the promise, of government."



"Managing people's sex lives is something that I don't think is a good role for government."



"I think government has a major role to play in helping us with the pursuit of happiness."



"It's not good for government to tell people that the world owes them a living and that things are free."



"Do we believe that there is equal economic opportunity out there in the real world, right now, for each and every one of these groups? If we believed in the tooth fairy, if we believed in the Easter Bunny, we might well believe that."



"I dare say that a majority of the American people think that having a fair hearing on an issue of importance in our relations with Mexico is extremely important to our national interest, as well as theirs."



"Government has a role as well in what is referred to as redistributive justice."

