"“The tremendous increase in their defense. They're only 10 percent of American defense. They haven't had a tremendous increase. Ten percent of our defense. And I want to take all of them to task. Clearly, none of them are running for China — president of China — because this amount of demagoguery is shameful. Here, the Chinese people have a problem. And when we continue this rhetoric of beggar thy neighbor, where our interests always come first, there should be the interests of human beings, the interests of human beings."

““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.”