Elizabeth Warren Quotes on Capitalism, Politics, and More

Elizabeth Warren is a law professor-turned 2020 presidential candidate who’s dedicated to transforming the American economy.

Learn more about the popular presidential candidate below through fifty powerful, insightful Elizabeth Warren quotes. 

Can you view Elizabeth Warren as our future president? 

Before becoming a 2020 presidential candidate, Elizabeth Warren began a long academic career as a law professor and lecturer at many American universities including Rutgers University, University of Pennsylvania Law School, and Harvard Law School.

Warren’s political career began in 2012, where she was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from Massachusetts. 

Warren began her presidential campaign in 2019, and along with Bernie Sanders, only funds her campaign through grassroots cash, pushing away large lobbying groups. 

For her views on capitalism, politics, and more, check out the collection of Elizabeth Warren quotes below. 

Powerful Elizabeth Warren quotes

1. “You can’t predict it all. People will tell you to plan things out as best you can. They will tell you to focus. They will tell you to follow your dreams. They will all be right.” – Elizabeth Warren

2. “We can’t go out and tell ourselves we’ve done good if we haven’t.” – Elizabeth Warren

3. “What I’ve learned is that real change is very, very hard. But I’ve also learned that change is possible – if you fight for it.” – Elizabeth Warren

4. “Writing laws based on an abstract theory, rather than reality, is a dangerous undertaking.” – Elizabeth Warren

5. “I don’t want happy-face conclusions. I want the truth.” – Elizabeth Warren

6. “People have hearts, they have kids, they get jobs, they get sick, they cry, they dance. They live, they love, and they die. And that matters.” – Elizabeth Warren

7. “Groupthink can become a serious issue – old ideas stay around after they’re useful, and new ideas too often don’t get a fair hearing.” – Elizabeth Warren

8. “Too often, people get jobs based on who they know – not what they know.” – Elizabeth Warren

9. “A good education is a foundation for a better future.” – Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren quotes about her politics

10. “Part of my job is to make sense of all that I hear, and to retell it in a forceful way so that the decision-makers at Treasury can hear it. At least that’s how I see it.” – Elizabeth Warren

11. “I know what I am in Washington to do: I’m here to fight for hardworking families.” – Elizabeth Warren

12. “The word’s out: I’m a woman, and I’m going to have trouble backing off on that. I am what I am. I’ll go out and talk to people about what’s happening to their families, and when I do that, I’m a mother. I’m a grandmother.” – Elizabeth Warren

13. “I’m willing to throw my body in front of the bus to stop bad ideas.” – Elizabeth Warren

14. “I’ll work with anyone – and I really do mean that – Democrat, Republican, independent, Libertarian, contrarian, vegetarian.” – Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren quotes about capitalism

15. “It is critical that the American people, and not just their financial institutions, be represented at the negotiating table.” – Elizabeth Warren

16. “What we collectively decide about how to bail out our economy, how to pull our economy out of a ditch and what rules we put in place to make sure this problem does not happen again, will shape our country for the next 50 years. This is it.” – Elizabeth Warren

17. “I want millionaires and billionaires and Big Oil companies to pay their fair share.” – Elizabeth Warren

18. “When billionaire car dealers or manufacturers pay for ambassadorships, at least they pay with money earned by selling something of value.” – Elizabeth Warren

19. “Unfair servicing practices can worsen a family’s already difficult economic situation, and the injury echoes from the family to the community and ultimately throughout the economy.” – Elizabeth Warren

20. “And that’s how we build the economy of the future. An economy with more jobs and less debt, we root it in fairness. We grow it with opportunity. And we build it together.” – Elizabeth Warren

21. “I learned early on what debt means, how vulnerable it makes people, what the security of owning a home means.” – Elizabeth Warren

22. “America had been a boom-and-bust economy going into the Great Depression – just over and over and over, fortunes were wiped out, ordinary families were crushed under it.” – Elizabeth Warren

23. “There’s been such a sense that there’s one set of rules for trillion-dollar financial institutions and a different set for all the rest of us. It’s so pervasive that it’s not even hidden.” – Elizabeth Warren

24. “The poor pay more, and that’s one of the reasons people get trapped at the bottom of the economic ladder.” – Elizabeth Warren

25. “We need a new model: If you can’t explain it, you can’t sell it.” – Elizabeth Warren

26. “I think a lot of Americans are not sure which side Washington is on: the side of banks or the side of the people.” – Elizabeth Warren

27. “Credit cards are like snakes: Handle ’em long enough, and one will bite you.” – Elizabeth Warren

28. “The over-representation of Wall Street banks in senior government positions sends a bad message. It tells people that one – and only one – point of view will dominate economic policymaking.” – Elizabeth Warren

29. “Bankruptcy exposes the economic vulnerability and insecurity of middle class women.” – Elizabeth Warren

30. “Consumers get used to reading and understanding their credit card contracts, their mortgages, their check overdraft agreements, those are good things. That puts power back in the hands of consumers.” – Elizabeth Warren

31. “For many women, the on-time payments of domestic support obligations are essential to economic survival.” – Elizabeth Warren

32. “Even families with health insurance are quite vulnerable to a severe economic reversal if someone gets sick.” – Elizabeth Warren

33. “Going to college and finding a good job no longer guarantee economic safety.” – Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren quotes about American society

34. “People feel like the system is rigged against them, and here is the painful part, they’re right. The system is rigged.” – Elizabeth Warren

35. “Americans are fighters. We’re tough, resourceful and creative, and if we have the chance to fight on a level playing field, where everyone pays a fair share and everyone has a real shot, then no one – no one can stop us.” – Elizabeth Warren

36. “How do you think we build a future? I think we build it by investing in our kids and investing in education.” – Elizabeth Warren

37. “America’s middle class is getting hammered, and Washington is rigged to work for the big guy.” – Elizabeth Warren

38. “We’re Americans. We celebrate success. We just don’t want the game to be rigged.” – Elizabeth Warren

39. “We shouldn’t be profiting from our students who are drowning in debt while giving a great deal to the banks. That’s just wrong.” – Elizabeth Warren

Elizabeth Warren quotes about upbringing

40. “Like a lot of you, I grew up in a family on the ragged edges of the middle class. My daddy sold carpeting and ended up as a maintenance man. After he had a heart attack, my mom worked the phones at Sears so we could hang on to our house.” – Elizabeth Warren

41. “Me, I was waiting tables of 13 and married at 19. I graduated from public schools, and taught elementary school.” – Elizabeth Warren

42. “I had a baby and stayed home for a couple of years, and I was really casting about, thinking, ‘What am I going to do?’ My husband’s view of it was, ‘Stay home… We’ll have more children; you’ll love this.’ And I was very restless about it.” – Elizabeth Warren

43. “When she was 16, my grandmother, Hannie Reed, drove a wagon in the Oklahoma land rush.” – Elizabeth Warren

44. “I was 30 before I realized, you know, that I probably was an accident. These things just suddenly hit you one day.” – Elizabeth Warren

45. “I grew up in the Methodist church and taught Sunday school, and one of my favorite passages of scripture is, ‘in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.’ Matthew 25:40.” – Elizabeth Warren

46. “My brothers and I grew up on stories about our grandfather building one-room schoolhouses and about our grandparents’ courtship and their early lives together in Indian Territory.” – Elizabeth Warren

47. “I was in a high school where everybody was a click better off.” – Elizabeth Warren

48. “I had to make a choice – recede into the academic world, or wade into politics.” – Elizabeth Warren

49. “I graduated law school nine months pregnant and didn’t take a job.” – Elizabeth Warren

50. “Growing up, my mother and grandparents often talked about our family’s Native American heritage. As a kid, I never thought to ask them for documentation – what kid would?” – Elizabeth Warren

How do you view the current American economy?

Elizabeth Warren isn’t afraid to be a critic of American government, politics, and economics, whether that’s condemning the actions of President Donald Trump or shining a light on laws protecting multi-billion dollar financial institutions.

As a law professor specializing in bankruptcy, she had a firsthand account of how America’s economic policies have affected millions of individuals and families across the nation. 

If you have a strong opinion, don’t let fear keep you from speaking out.

Realizing your power is the first step of making a change, whether in your local community or throughout the entire nation.

Making the brave decision to let your voice be heard may help others around you who need a leader. 

Are there any other powerful Elizabeth Warren quotes that you would like to discuss?

Start the conversation below!