"If things are going bad, just remember who put these people in power. What I’m trying to say to you Americans, and that is you have to become empowered. You’re too busy trusting your leaders, thinking they’re going to do the job for you. They’ve proven they cannot do the job, whether it’s war, whether it’s education, whether it’s health care. Please go to nationalinitiative.us and vote to empower yourself. Because that is the only answer. Representative government and our government is broken. It’s in pieces, and the people are the only ones that can do something about it. There’s only two venues for change. One is the government, where the problem lies, and the other is with the American people. And that’s the message of my campaign, is the American people have to step forward and solve the problem. Don’t wait on your leaders, because they’ll never get the job done."

““We don't need a minimum wage; we need a living wage. We don't have that in this country because of what they passed.”

“Chris Matthews: “Where have you been for 35 years, sir?” Mike Gravel: “Hiding under a rock for ten years because I was so disgusted.” -- On Gravel's hiatus from politics. Interview.”

““The people must be brought into the operation of government, to make the laws that affect their lives, and thereby become the fourth check in our government’s system of checks and balances.” -- Mike Gravel on the 'National Initiative'. Video.”

““You know what's worse than a soldier dying in vain? It's more soldiers dying in vain.” — On staying in Iraq. Speech.”

““Totally. I think it's abominable that they go out and do these raids, separate families. Stop and think -- all these people want to do is earn enough money to feed their families, whether they send them money back home or they bring their families here. If we made it easier for them to go back and forth on the borders, you wouldn't have this problem.”

““Hasn't it become obvious in this discussion that there has to be a reason why over the last 15 years we haven't solved this problem as a nation? Stop and think. Our unemployment level is about 4.5, and that's about as low as you can get it. So, where is the problem? We have to have people fill these jobs. They come in and fill these jobs. We call them illegal. Are they illegal? They're filling jobs that need to be done.”