In his quest to shake up Washington and the bipartisan system, Dr. Ron Paul has been quoted taking some pretty touchy stances. The following Ron Paul quotes are sure to shake things up in the mainstream.

"Up until this past century, you know for 100 years, they were legal. What you're inferring is 'you know what? If we legalize heroin tomorrow, everybody is going to use heroin.' How many people here would use heroin if it was legal? I bet nobody would."

Ron Paul gave this answer in a debate when asked if legalizing heroin, marijuana, cocaine, and prostitution would be acceptable if states allow them.

"How did the Department of Homeland Security get into the medical business?"

Dr. Paul's response to the 2009 Swine flu “epidemic”, in which no deaths were recorded, but the federal government and the Department of Homeland Security became involved.

"Osama Bin Laden was our good friend because he was a freedom fighter in Afghanistan and we gave him our weapons and supported him. But then we found out he was not quite so friendly, so we captured a few of his men and he retaliated by bombing our embassies. Of course, we retaliated by bombing innocent chemical plants as well as people in Afghanistan that had nothing to do with it."

Ron Paul was recorded saying this on C-SPAN, when he was speaking in favor of an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for the 1999 fiscal year.

"Libertarians are incapable of being a racist, because racism is a collectivist idea."

Ron Paul threw this out when he came under fire for his newsletters that were published over 20 years ago, and, to some, were filled with racist remarks. He continued by saying, "You see people in group. And a civil libertarian, like myself, see everybody as an important individual."

"How about getting rid of the Department of Education and Department of Agriculture. Just go down the list. Get rid of it. Cut the budget in half. Everything that's not constitutional. That's a good place to start."

Dr. Paul said this in an interview on MSNBC back in 2009.

"You want to get rid of drug crime in this country? Fine, let's just get rid of all the drug laws."

This is an “official” Ron Paul quote and you can find it on his homepage along with many other quotes he believes in.

"Homosexuals, not to speak of the rest of society, were far better off when social pressure forced them to hide their activities."

This is a quote from one of his infamous newsletters published in 1990. The debate rages on over who actually wrote the newsletters in question, as Dr. Paul denies it, but he did publish the works.

“Certainly the drafters of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, both replete with references to God, would be aghast at the federal government’s hostility to religion. The establishment clause of the First Amendment was simply intended to forbid the creation of an official state church like the Church of England, not to drive religion out of public life.”

Ron Paul made this statement regarding separation of church and state. This is controversial because America was founded as a secular state, not a Christian state.

“People often say that what this country needs is for people in Washington to stop fighting and just get the job done. To achieve that, we need more ‘bipartisanship.’ I don’t agree…When the ideas of both parties are bad, there is really only one hope: that they will continue fighting and not pass any new legislation.”

This comes from Dr. Paul’s book Liberty Defined, published April 19, 2011.

“I think this fence business is designed and may well be used against us and keep us in. In economic turmoil, the people want to leave with their capital. And there’s capital controls and there’s people control. So, every time you think of the fence keeping all those bad people out, think about those fences maybe being used against us, keeping us in.”

Ron Paul said this during the Politico Republican Primary Debate hosted in September 2011. You can click here to watch the video.

“The prevailing attitude of the American people is that everyone has a right to medical care. This is an intellectual error that will lead us down a path toward destroying what is good in the current system.”

This quote is taken again from his book, Liberty Defined. In this quote, Paul goes further than most Republicans dare, denouncing not only Obamacare but organized health care in general.

Last but not least, taken again from his book Liberty Defined:

“Any effort to mandate or enforce the goal of making everyone free from want and fear through government action will guarantee the destruction of the concept of personal liberty,” he writes. “Whether it’s local government or world government, and no matter the motivation, this effort can only destroy one’s right to life, liberty, and property.”