Sourced

• I used to feel that women were here for one reason. Sex was simply another kind of exercise, another body function. I was convinced a girl and I couldn't communicate on equal footing because she wouldn't understand what I was doing. I didn't have time to take one girl out regularly and go through a normal high-school romance with all its phone calls and notes and squabbles. That took too much time. I needed to be in the gym. For me it was a simple matter of picking them up at the lake, and then never seeing them again.
  • Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder (1977), New York: Simon & Schuster, ISBN 0-671-22879-X

• Eventually there was a split between my parents about me. My mother obviously knew what was going on with me and the girls my friends lined up. She never came out and said anything directly, but she let me know she was concerned. Things were different between me and my father. He assumed that when I was eighteen, I would just go into the Army and they would straighten me out. He accepted some of the things my mother condemned. He felt it was perfectly all right to make out with all the girls I could. In fact, he was proud I was dating the fast girls. He bragged about them to his friends. "Jesus Christ, you should see some of the women my son's coming up with." He was showing off, of course. But still, our whole relationship had changed because I'd established myself by winning a few trophies and now had some girls. He was particularly excited about the girls. And he liked the idea that I didn't get involved. "That's right, Arnold," he'd say, as though he'd had endless experience, "never be fooled by them." That continued to be an avenue of communication between us for a couple of years. In fact, the few nights I took girls home when I was on leave from the Army, my father was always very pleasant and would bring out a bottle of wine and a couple of glasses.
  • Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder (1977)

• My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it...People need somebody to watch over them. . . . Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.
  • A profile in U.S. News and World Report (1990)

• I play the Terminator, but you guys are the true terminators.
  • To American GIs stationed in Iraq http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,91110,00.html (2003)

• My hair was pulled. I was hit with belts. So was the kid next door, and so was the kid next door. It was just the way it was. Many of the children I've seen were broken by their parents, which was the German-Austrian mentality. Break the will. They didn't want to create an individual.... It was all about conforming. I was one who did not conform and whose will could not be broken. Therefore I became a rebel. Every time I got hit, and every time someone said, 'You can't do this,' I said, 'This is not going to be for much longer, because I'm going to move out of here... of course, I had no plan how.
  • Fortune magazine (Aug. 2004)

• In sports, you learn competition means go after it, win it. And not to let anything else interfere. It's something you learn, and it sticks with you. I consider myself an expert in looking into a particular idea or goal and then going after it without anything else in mind... It's always the same kind of thing. You pick a goal, and then you just go after it, accomplish it, and get satisfaction out of that.
  • From Cowboys & Indians, the "magazine of the west" (Sept. 2004)
  • When asked if big-screen success could bring him as much satisfaction as body-building victories

• I found a new me. When I first came over to America, it was like, 'How can I be rich? How can I build my movie career? How can I become the most muscular man?' It was all about me, and then there was this turn, and I found it was really great to do this.
  • From Cowboys & Indians, the "magazine of the west" (Sept. 2004)
  • Recalling a speech in which his father-in-law, creator of the Peace Corps, urged listeners to "Break that mirror in front of you -- that mirror that only lets you look at yourself."

• Why not? With my way of thinking, you always shoot for the top.
  • On 60 Minutes, when asked whether he favors amending the U.S. Constitution to allow naturalized citizens (such as himself) to run for president. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=6675372&src=rss/oddlyEnoughNews§ion=news (October 31 2004)

• These kids come to me and ask, 'Hey Arnie, are you God?'. I just laugh and say 'Nice try, but keep looking.'
  • Interview with BASE magazine (2005).

• We simply must do everything we can in our power to slow down global warming before it is too late... The science is clear. The global warming debate is over.
  • Bill signing ceremony for California's strict anti-emissions law (September 26, 2006) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15029070/

• This guy is just fumbling around.
  • Schwarzenegger's Boris blast", Daily Mirror (3 October 2007)
  • On Boris Johnson, whom Schwarzenegger was viewing via a video link

• She maybe is Puerto Rican or the same thing as Cuban. I mean, they are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it.
  • Commenting on Bonnie Garcia during a staff meeting http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-govmeeting-mp3,0,1874429.mp3file (September 08 2006)

Interview with Oui Magazine (1977)

• If a girl comes on strong and says, 'I really dig your body and I want to fuck the shit out of you,' I just decide whether or not I like her. If I do take her home, I try to make sure I get just as much out of it as she does. The word exploited therefore wouldn't apply.

• Bodybuilders party a lot, and once, in Gold's — the gym in Venice, California, where all the top guys train — there was a black girl who came out naked. Everybody jumped on her and took her upstairs, where we all got together.

• I get laid on purpose. I can't sleep before a competition and I'm up all night, anyway, so instead of staring at the ceiling I figure I might as well find somebody and fuck... we had girls backstage giving head, then all of us went out and I won. It didn't bother me at all; in fact, I went out there feeling like King Kong.

Republican National Convention (August 31, 2004)

• This is like winning an Oscar!… As if I would know! Speaking of acting, one of my movies was called True Lies. And that’s what the Democrats should have called their convention.

• When I was on my way to the podium a gentleman stopped me and said I was as good a politician as I was an actor. What a cheap shot.

• I finally arrived here in 1968. What a special day it was. I remember I arrived here with empty pockets but full of dreams, full of determination, full of desire. The presidential campaign was in full swing. I remember watching the Nixon-Humphrey presidential race on TV. A friend of mine who spoke German and English translated for me. I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like socialism, which I had just left. But then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting the government off your back, lowering the taxes and strengthening the military. Listening to Nixon speak sounded more like a breath of fresh air. I said to my friend, I said, "What party is he?" My friend said, "He's a Republican." I said, "Then I am a Republican." And I have been a Republican ever since.

• My fellow immigrants, my fellow Americans how do you know if you are a Republican? I’ll tell you how. If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government, then you are a Republican! If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group, then you are a Republican! If you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does, then you are a Republican! If you believe our educational system should be held accountable for the progress of our children, then you are a Republican! If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope of democracy in the world, then you are a Republican! If you believe that the American Dream can be reachable if you work hard enough to earn it, then you are a Republican! And, ladies and gentlemen, if you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism, then you are a Republican! There is another way you can tell you’re a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people, and faith in the U.S. economy.

• There is another way you can tell you’re a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people, and faith in the U.S. economy. To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: ‘Don’t be economic girlie men!’

• Anyway, my fellow Americans, this is an amazing moment for me. To think that a once-scrawny boy from Austria could grow up to become governor of the state of California and then stand here...then stand here in Madison Square Garden and speak on behalf of the president of the United States -- that is an immigrant's dream. It is the American dream.

• My fellow Americans, I want you to know that I believe with all my heart that America remains the great idea that inspires the world. It's a privilege to be born here. It's an honor to become a citizen here. It's a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here. Our president, George W. Bush, has worked hard to protect and preserve the American dream for all of us. And that's why I say, send him back to Washington for four more years!

Unsourced

• Any man loves a little hummer.
  • Tonight Show with Jay Leno

• Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.

• You can't reason with people blinded by hate. They hate the power of the individual. They hate the progress of women. They hate the religious freedom of others. They hate the liberating breeze of democracy. But ladies and gentlemen, their hate is no match for America's decency.

• The guys who own the most real estate in Los Angeles are Europeans. There are people coming over from Yugoslavia with hardly any money...a friend of mine came over from Czechoslovakia in '68 and he now owns four apartment buildings. Americans are still sitting on their asses waiting for it. Europeans are hungry because we don't have that much.
  • Time Out, 1977

• What I want to do is make Americans aware that they're fucked-up when they equate everything a person does with some sexual trip. . You know, if you hold a pencil in your hand, it's a phallic symbol and you really want to hold a cock in your hand. And a football coach doesn't really want to be a coach, he likes to slap football players' asses...he's a latent homosexual. And it goes on and on and on, all the fucking time.
  • Time Out, 1977

• America is so money-oriented. (Thank God! It's always helped me!) But it has its disadvantages because the psychiatrists know their business doesn't mean a thing if there are no sick people around, and so they make everybody feel guilty. You know, all New York City is running to a psychiatrist. All America thinks it has sexual hang ups. Everybody's running to shrinks.
  • Time Out, 1977

• Nixon was always being attacked sexually. It was always said that he was a fag and that he had no sexual relations with his wife for 15 years and that was why he liked power. And Hitler had only one ball, and that was why he wanted to conquer the world.
  • Time Out, 1977

• I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman.
  • During the California recall campaign (2003)

• So I want to say to you: yes, that I have behaved badly sometimes. Yes, it is true that I was on rowdy movie sets and I have done things that were not right which I thought then was playful, but now I recognize that I have offended people. And to those people that I have offended, I want to say to them: I am deeply sorry about that, and I apologize because this is not what I'm trying to do. When I am governor, I will prove to women that I will be a champion for women. I hope you will give me the chance to prove this.
  • At a campaign stop in San Diego (Oct 2003)

Attributed

• I take steroids because they help me an extra 5 percent. Women take the (contraception) pill. They are somewhat similar. I do it under a doctor's supervision. (1974)

• Yes I have used them, but no, they didn't make me what I am. Anabolic steroids were helpful to me in maintaining muscle size while on a strict diet in preparation for a contest. (1977)

• I don't worry about it, because I never took an overdosage. (1987)

• In those days you didn't have to deal with the black market. You could go to your physician and just say, 'Listen, I want to gain some weight, and I want to take something.' Then the physician would say, 'Do it six weeks before competition, then it will be safe.' And that's what you would do. The dosage that was taken then versus taken now is not even 10 percent. It's probably 5 percent. (1992)

• I used steroids. It was a risky thing to do, but I have no regrets. It was what I had to do to compete. The danger with steroids is overusage. I only did it before a difficult competition – for two months, but not for a period of time that could harm me. And then afterward, it was over. I would stop. I have no health problems, no kidney damage or anything like that from using them. (1996)

Misattributed

• If we get rid of the moon, women, those menstrual cycles are governed by the moon, will not get PMS. They will stop bitching and whining.
  • by an AS impersonator on Howard Stern's radio show; mistaken as authentic by Joe Scarborough (reference)