“Cheerleading gave me a love of sports, which I brought to the Senate. I can talk to the good ol' boys about college sports because I follow it like they do.”

“Congress can't take the year off, election or no election.”

“Congress suffers a great deal of criticism for its partisan acrimony. But while we may disagree politically, and air our opposition in this chamber, it is the conversation behind the scenes that cements and defines our relationships.”

“I am proud of the President's leadership. I am proud to support him in saying: Yes, we are going to do what is necessary now when it is less painful and less expensive.”

“I do think women generally are more humble.”

“I grew up in a time when many people believed that men and women should not always be treated equally.”

“I have always been able to rise above the expectations.”

“I have long believed taxpayers make better use of their money than the government ever could.”

“I just don't see anonymous sources as fair against a candidate. I think if someone has a real concern, they should come out and say it.”

“I want to thank the people of Texas for asking me to represent them in Washington.”

“My dad was a workaholic. I saw him work seven days a week.”

“Our country also hungers for leadership to ensure the long-term survival of our Social Security system. With 70 million baby boomers in this country on the verge of retirement, we need to take action to shore up the system.”

“Our country was hit on 9/11, 2001. Everybody in the world knows that. It hasn't been easy to deal with a different kind of enemy, but that is what we have, a different kind of enemy.”

“People can't imagine an enemy that would cut someone's head off before a video camera and spread it out across the world. But that has happened with the kind of enemy we are now facing.”

“Saying you're from Texas makes you kind of proud.”

“Texans should not be taxed on our taxes.”

“The important thing is that we recognize our President's leadership, that he is not saying: I am going to walk away from this. He is saying: I am going to do the right thing.”

“The traditional role of the Senate has been to be the adult in the room.”

“There are elections in which everyone knows that 'the people have spoken' but they don't always know exactly what the people have said. This November's election was different. Not only did the people speak, they spoke clearly.”

“Unfortunately because of the variety of outlets for people to speak their minds on the Internet and that kind of thing, it's made the media in general more opinionated and there's more of a 'gotcha mentality' than real reporting.”

“We are battling fanatics who kidnap and behead civilians and shoot fleeing children in the back. There can be no dialogue with such people, and the American people understand this.”

“We can be proud of our record as an international beacon of liberty. From fostering democracies in Eastern Europe to the stabilization of Iraq and Afghanistan, we have been true to that calling and helped spread freedom to oppressed peoples everywhere.”

“We cannot afford to lose the Medicaid funding for low-income women.”

“Well, I think that it's clear that the Republican Party is a pro-life party. And we do value life. And we do believe that the unborn have a right to life.”

“When I became the first woman to represent the state of Texas in the United State Senate, it was with the help of a lot of women - and a large number of men, too.”

“When it comes to dividing Americans on the basis of their gender, I know a little something about the subject.”