I grew up in San Francisco. And so I’m informed in a certain kind of way about, you know, believing in democracy and believing in America. And I’m a very ardent patriot.

El Salvador is a democracy so it’s not surprising that there are many voices to be heard here. Yet in my conversations with Salvadorans… I have heard a single voice.

There’s not a liberal America and a conservative America – there’s the United States of America.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

An asylum for the sane would be empty in America.

America makes prodigious mistakes, America has colossal faults, but one thing cannot be denied: America is always on the move. She may be going to Hell, of course, but at least she isn’t standing still.

The only definition by which America’s best days are behind it is on a purely relative basis.

I was brought up to believe that the worst thing you could do was ‚call attention to yourself,‘ or ‚think you were smart.‘ My mother was an exception to this rule and was punished by the early onset of Parkinson’s disease.

I have no further use for America. I wouldn’t go back there if Jesus Christ was President.

Within the soul of America is freedom of mind and spirit in man. Here alone are the open windows through which pours the sunlight of the human spirit. Here alone is human dignity not a dream but an accomplishment. Perhaps it is not perfect, but it is more full in realization here than any other place in the world.

This is America. You’re entitled to believe what you want.

Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making.

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.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

Now you have a choice: we can give more tax breaks to corporations that ship jobs overseas, or we can start rewarding companies that open new plants and train new workers and create new jobs here, in the United States of America.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

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

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

And so I think that the idea of America working with other countries to solve problems is good for us, and it is part of digging us out of the ‚my way or the highway‘ approach that was evident in the previous eight years.

In this possibly terminal phase of human existence, democracy and freedom are more than just ideals to be valued – they may be essential to survival.

San Francisco is gone. Nothing remains of it but memories.

I don’t think the Christian Right dominates America in the way some in the media believe they do.

I grew up in a funny way.

I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.

It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.

I don’t think anybody in America ought to be scared.

But more than anything else, for the British folks Irish people were all terrorists. So when we went to Britain, it was always a lot of resistance to U2. And that’s why we came to America.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

I grew up with the biologists. I know how they think.

I grew up in a very nice house in Houston, went to private school all my life and I’ve never even been to the ‚hood. Not that there’s anything wrong with the ‚hood.

Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.

The only thing I have to go by is what my mother and father told me, how I was brought up.

We can’t equate democracy with Christianity because the largest democracy on earth is India, which is primarily Hindu. The third largest democracy is Indonesia, which is Islamic. Democracy and freedom are not dependent on Christian beliefs.

The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.

The magic of America is that we’re a free and open society with a mixed population. Part of our security is our freedom.

However my parents – both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing quirk that would never pay a mortgage or secure a pension.

Our friends at the Republican convention were more than happy to talk about everything they think is wrong with America, but they didn’t have much to say about how they’d make it right. They want your vote, but they don’t want you to know their plan.

Every country is like a particular type of person. America is like a belligerent, adolescent boy; Canada is like an intelligent, 35-year-old woman. Australia is like Jack Nicholson. It comes right up to you and laughs very hard in your face in a highly threatening and engaging manner.

Unfortunately, after Sept. 11, there was an outburst in America of intense suffering and patriotism, and the Bush administration was very shrewd and effective in painting anyone who disagreed with the policies as unpatriotic or even traitorous.

I remember how my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays… and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God. For me, at least, it got in the way.

My upbringing was solid because of the people I had around me.

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.

Economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.

My mother would kill me if I posed nude! My mother raised me with certain standards.

I have found out in later years that we were very poor, but the glory of America is that we didn’t know it then.

The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.

It’s never paid to bet against America. We come through things, but its not always a smooth ride.

Being brought up very religious, I have a fear of people that look to idol gods.

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read ‚Democracy in America‘ by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

The great thing about America is that you can come from the worst circumstances and become something remarkable.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.

All great change in America begins at the dinner table.

The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate… we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.