No party has a monopoly on wisdom. No democracy works without compromise. But when Governor Romney and his allies in Congress tell us we can somehow lower our deficit by spending trillions more on new tax breaks for the wealthy – well, you do the math. I refuse to go along with that. And as long as I’m President, I never will.

George Bush made a mistake when he referred to the Saddam Hussein regime as ‚evil.‘ Every liberal and leftist knows how to titter at such black-and-white moral absolutism.

Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‚We, the people.‘

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

Government actually grew during the Reagan years.

Most liberals think of civil liberties as their Achilles heel. It isn’t.

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy – which many believe goes hand in hand with it – will be dead as well.

I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

I am not a communist and neither is the revolutionary movement.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

I know that campaigns can seem small, and even silly. Trivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. And the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. If you’re sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me – so am I.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

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

Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It’s the other way around. They never vote for us.

Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against.

Let me just be very clear that the Republican Party will select a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton.

The fundamental question I believe is, ‚Is political Islam in our best interest?‘ If not, what is our policy to authoritatively support the countervailing forces?

The issues that cross a president’s desk are never easy. The easy questions don’t even get to the president.

I think that both parties should declare the debt limit as a political weapon of mass destruction which can’t be used. I mean, it is silly to have a country that has 237 years building up its reputation and then have people threaten to tear it down because they’re not getting some other matter.

But let me perfectly clear, because I know you’ll hear the same old claims that rolling back these tax breaks means a massive tax increase on the American people: if your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

Politics is for the present, but an equation is for eternity.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

Democracy… is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

The difference between a Republican and a Democrat is the Democrat is a cannibal they have to live off each other, while the Republicans, why, they live off the Democrats.

It’s actually very easy for democracy to disappear.

The U.S. couldn’t even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They’ll be killing each other again in less than a year. I’m sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.

A whole people with the ballot in their hands possess the most conclusive and unlimited power ever entrusted to humanity.

Before I became a chief minister, I never thought that one day I’d be the chief minister.

He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

It isn’t generally the case that liberals dominate entire hierarchies. That isn’t generally how it works, because the hierarchies are usually set up so that conservatives fill up the hierarchies; it’s in the nature of hierarchy.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

I stay out of politics because if I begin thinking too much about politics, I’ll probably… drop writing children’s books and become a political cartoonist again.

Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as a heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

And frankly, I don’t understand – I mean, I’m obviously a card-carrying Democrat – but I can’t understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney, except maybe Mrs. Romney.

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

The Trump phenomenon is in large part a reaction of Middle America to attacks on its values by intellectual and academic communities. There are other reasons, but this is a significant one.

I continue to care for President Obama and for his family. I think that in many ways they are very courageous people, and I honor that, because I know what it means to live as a black person in a racist America.

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

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

There’s no doubt that usually a president’s public image is enhanced by going to war. That never did appeal to me.

All the blood is drained out of democracy – it dies – when only half the population votes.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

There is a group of people that I think in good faith honestly believe that further curtailing our Second Amendment rights will enhance public safety. But there’s another group that just hates the Second Amendment.

Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is.

I don’t see any possibility of Britain and the U.S. allowing a sovereign independent Iraq; that’s almost inconceivable.