What makes America great was a government that was founded to be limited to doing one thing. I really believe the whole purpose of America, the aspirational value - why everybody who wants to come to this country wants to come here - was because we respected the dignity of every living person.

Rick Santorum

I'll never forget the first time I saw someone who had died. It was my grandfather. And I knelt next to his coffin. And all I could do was eye level was look at his hands. They were enormous hands. And all I could think was, 'Those hands dug freedom for me.'

Rick Santorum

It's very interesting, if you look at a study that was done by the Brookings Institute back in 2009, they determined that if Americans do three things, they can avoid poverty. Three things. Work, graduate from high school, and get married before you have children.

Rick Santorum

I'm someone who believes that making things creates wealth.

Rick Santorum

Capitalism actually encourages morality because capitalism can't function well if people can't trust each other and people aren't honest, if a deal isn't a deal.

Rick Santorum

The president of the United States is a commander-in-chief, and the president of the United States, you know, executes the laws and tries to motivate the American public to make changes that are necessary. It's not necessarily a CEO type of position.

Rick Santorum

Defend the church. Defend the family. Defend the non-profit community. Defend them against a government that wants to weaken them.

Rick Santorum

I love it when the left and when the president say, 'Don't try to impose your values on us, you folks who hold your Bibles in your hand and cling to your guns.' They have values too. Our values are based on religion, based on life. Their values are based on a religion of self.

Rick Santorum

As the Wall Street Journal called our economic plan, supply-side economics for the working man, is resonating in Minnesota and here in Missouri and across this country.

Rick Santorum

One of the things that I realize is that if you look at big business, I mean, they - and what they fund and what they do, they don't really - they don't fund the small non-profit community-based organizations that really are out there on the front lines helping people. They fund the big philanthropies. They're safe.

Rick Santorum

Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships.

Rick Santorum

But the reason America is a great country, the reason is because our compassion is in our laws. And when we live by those laws and we treat everybody equally under the law, that's when people feel good about being Americans.

Rick Santorum

You can't have a limited government if the family breaks down.

Rick Santorum

The more moral the people are in their business dealings, the less paperwork you need, the more handshakes you can have, the more the wheels of capitalism work better because there's trust in the marketplace. Business ethics is not a joke. And, in fact, I think most businesses that I've dealt with encourage exactly that type of behavior.

Rick Santorum

My work with Patriot Voices actually dovetails very well into the work I'm going to be doing with EchoLight. I'll be traveling around the country, doing a lot of radio interviews, a lot of media interviews, so I don't see that as all inconsistent.

Rick Santorum

I do care about not 99 percent or 95 percent. I care about the very rich and the very poor. I care about 100 percent of America.

Rick Santorum

If you look at the big entertainment industry and their pursuit of the bottom line profits in exchange for producing content and distributing that content and marketing that content to inappropriate audiences, that's a problem for me.

Rick Santorum

But look what happens when the government gives you rights. When the government gives you rights, unlike when God gives you rights, the government can take them away. When government gives you rights, the government can tell you how to exercise those rights.

Rick Santorum

People of faith, people of no faith, people of different faith, that's what America is all about; it's bringing that diversity into and challenge of the different ideas that motivate people in our country. That's what makes America work.

Rick Santorum

Watching President Obama apologize last week for America's arrogance - before a French audience that owes its freedom to the sacrifices of Americans - helped convince me that he has a deep-seated antipathy toward American values and traditions.

Rick Santorum

I'm always told that what I say is controversial. Why is it controversial? Because I speak from a tradition that has now fallen out of favor with the dominant media in this country. And so when I say things like marriage should be between one man and one woman, I'm called a bigot.

Rick Santorum