All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

I’m the proof – you can’t throw away tradition.

The things that will destroy America are prosperity-at-any-price, peace-at-any-price, safety-first instead of duty-first, the love of soft living, and the get-rich-quick theory of life.

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

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

I’m highly political. I spend an awful lot of time in the U.S. trying to influence decision-makers. But I don’t feel in tune with British politics.

The mob is the mother of tyrants.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.

Regardless of what society says, we can’t go on much longer in the sea of immorality without judgment coming.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

Humanity, you never had it to begin with.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

In this constant battle which we call living, we try to set a code of conduct according to the society in which we are brought up, whether it be a Communist society or a so-called free society; we accept a standard of behaviour as part of our tradition as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or whatever we happen to be.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.

We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society.

All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself.

We’re a diverse society, and I think the TV is doing a great job in showing that we’re all human beings, that we can all get along, that we can all be together, and I think that’s a marvelous thing.

Richard Nixon is a no good, lying bastard. He can lie out of both sides of his mouth at the same time, and if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he’d lie just to keep his hand in.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

To remain a credible leader, I must always work first, hardest, and longest on changing myself. This is neither easy nor natural, but it is essential.

The end of the human race will be that it will eventually die of civilization.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

In many ways, when you’re a Nobel peace laureate, you have an obligation to humankind, to society.

Nobody is above the law. Imagine if there allegations against Modi and he is the Prime Minister. Should the case not be pursued just because he has become the PM. It should not be so that it should be stopped. I am not above the law.

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.

The name Zahra was to have been lman’s own name at birth, but a senior member of the family changed it to lman at the last minute.

When Rumsfeld gets up on television and says we have definitive intelligence that al Qaeda is working with Iraq, how is an ordinary citizen supposed to react? They won’t tell you the evidence, and when anyone asks, they say, ‚Well, you know: It’s secret.‘

Everything can change at any moment, suddenly and forever.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

Part of my ancestry is Cherokee. And in that tradition, you become an adult when you’re 52.

I just didn’t want to get out there anymore; I didn’t want to get back into what I call ‚the swamp.‘ And the other reason why is I don’t think it’s good for the presidency for a former president to be opining about his successor. President Obama’s got plenty of critics – and I’m just not gonna be one.

‚Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age‘ was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant’s thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed out of the Stone Age.

In too much of the West, everyone wants the guarantee of safety, and never having to make any decisions.

Ritual will always mean throwing away something: destroying our corn or wine upon the altar of our gods.

Part of your heritage in this society is the opportunity to become financially independent.

You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.

Great countries are those that produce great people.

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

A lot of churches have not moved with the times.

The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

I have this feeling that the world is not in balance. And people are afraid, but we’re also starting to be really brave.

I’m never in the same place for more than, like, three days at a time. Things can change from one minute to the next.

How terribly downright must be the utterances of storms and earthquakes to those accustomed to the soft hypocrisies of society.

Political necessities sometime turn out to be political mistakes.

There’s some jerks. There’s some big egos. There are a few that think they’re one of the Founding Fathers… in both parties.

If you’re sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.

Nixon was no more a saint than he was a great president.

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?

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

I think the tiniest little thing can change the course of your day, which can change the course of your year, which can change who you are.

I have been ever of opinion that revolutions are not to be evaded.

Songs don’t have to be about going out on Saturday night and having a good rink-up and driving home and crashing cars. A lot of what I’ve done is about alienation… about where you fit in society.

Change is inevitable. Change is constant.

Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.

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