Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

Government’s first duty and highest obligation is public safety.

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.

I don’t think the government should be in the trailer-park business. I don’t think they know how to run a trailer park.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

There are websites that any government wants to block. The truth about the Internet is that it’s extremely hard to block anything – extremely hard. You’ll never get perfect blocking.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy.

Democracy is the road to socialism.

It’s not proper for the government to intrude too thoroughly into the domain of the family. It’s inappropriate.

I do have a political agenda. It’s to have as few regulations as possible.

Since I’m the president and Democrats have controlled the House and the Senate, it’s understandable that people are saying, you know, ‚What have you done?‘

As a tactic, violence is absurd. No one can compete with the Government in violence, and the resort to violence, which will surely fail, will simply frighten and alienate some who can be reached, and will further encourage the ideologists and administrators of forceful repression.

People who have given us their complete confidence believe that they have a right to ours. The inference is false, a gift confers no rights.

Democracy is the process by which people choose the man who’ll get the blame.

We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly.

Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots.

Our constitution is a ray of hope: H for harmony, O for Opportunity, P for people’s participation and E for equality.

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

Some people will have to be afraid. Those who plunder the nation, deliver injustice, will have to feel scared of me. And I am not afraid of admitting this. Government cannot be so lenient that it forgives them.

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

Nothing is unchangeable but the inherent and unalienable rights of man.

Personally, I’d like to see more of our leaders take a technocratic approach to solving our biggest problems.

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples‘ money.

If you believe that tax policy has nothing to do with the economy, then you’re pretty much like a rock, only dumber.

For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society.

Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

The government’s job is good governance for everybody. My government will make policies; if you fit into it, come on board, or stay where you are. My job is not to spoon-feed anyone.

Ninety-nine percent of the men and women of the FBI… are just professionals. I don’t want Americans, if an FBI agent knocks on their door, to have to be worried about well, is he a Democrat or a Republican? He’s an FBI agent.

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

I don’t write policy for my government.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

Free government is the most difficult of all government. But it is everlastingly true that the plain people will make fewer mistakes than any other group of men, no matter how powerful.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

He who exercises government by means of his virtue may be compared to the north polar star, which keeps its place and all the stars turn towards it.

I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.

All religions and all communities have the same rights, and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

The question really is, are you improving the world? And you can do that in many models. You can do that in government, you can do that in a nonprofit, and you can do it in commercial enterprise.

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Politically, the world is so confused right now – there’s so much suffering caused by various movements by various parties and people in power in government.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

You know we’re going to control the insurance companies.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

But just as they did in Philadelphia when they were writing the constitution, sooner or later, you’ve got to compromise. You’ve got to start making the compromises that arrive at a consensus and move the country forward.