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.

No, it’s not a very good story – its author was too busy listening to other voices to listen as closely as he should have to the one coming from inside.

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.

The middle class is so funny, it’s the class I know best, and it’s the class where you find the most pretension, so that’s what makes the middle classes so funny.

I have been working for Africans since I was 18, when I got involved with the Nelson Mandela concerts. I got involved with debt cancellation because Desmond Tutu demanded that the world respond to that situation.

When we are sick, we want an uncommon doctor; when we have a construction job to do, we want an uncommon engineer, and when we are at war, we want an uncommon general. It is only when we get into politics that we are satisfied with the common man.

I think one of the great things about the United States has been our ability to maintain a distinction between our military and domestic law enforcement.

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

Now from a distance, I look back on what the Corps taught me: to think like men of action, and to act like men of thought!

If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don’t get wet you can keep.

Let’s not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse.

Actually, to be an effective person politically in this country, I think you have to be thirty or over, and also you have to be rich, well-placed, you have to be close to power. And I don’t think that young people, because they look young, can do much, as I think they are counterproductive.

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

William Gladstone has not a single redeeming defect.

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?

I had three points I wanted to make: That not everybody in Hollywood is on the left, that Obama has broken a lot of the promises he made when he took office, and that the people should feel free to get rid of any politician who’s not doing a good job. But I didn’t make up my mind exactly what I was going to say until I said it.

True contentment is a thing as active as agriculture. It is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it. It is arduous and it is rare.

Nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.

I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion.

Remember that the essence of authority is that people willingly follow your lead.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

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

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.

It is wise to persuade people to do things and make them think it was their own idea.

A riot is the language of the unheard.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

Instead of being critical of people in authority over you and envious of their position, be happy you’re not responsible for everything they have to do. Instead of piling on complaints, thank them for what they do. Overwhelm them with encouragement and appreciation!

Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.

When things haven’t gone well for you, call in a secretary or a staff man and chew him out. You will sleep better and they will appreciate the attention.

The atomic bomb certainly is the most powerful of all weapons, but it is conclusively powerful and effective only in the hands of the nation which controls the sky.

To rule a country of a thousand chariots, there must be reverent attention to business, and sincerity; economy in expenditure, and love for men; and the employment of the people at the proper seasons.

I think with the Romans, that the general of today should be a soldier tomorrow if necessary.

A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or regard that quality in its chosen leaders today – and in fact we have forgotten.

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

If an individual wants to be a leader and isn’t controversial, that means he never stood for anything.

It’s nice to say let’s be bipartisan. But we’re a partisan nation. We were raised as a partisan nation.

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

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

It is difficult to violently suppress people in the long run, as the example of the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries has shown.

The time has come for us to draw the line. The time has come for the responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer.

Democracy don’t rule the world, You’d better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

I have always been grateful to Colonel Longley. He proved to me that when people in authority take a stand, good can come out of it.

My objection to Liberalism is this that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind namely, politics of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.

Example is leadership.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

Government isn’t that good at rapid advancement of technology. It tends to be better at funding basic research. To have things take off, you’ve got to have commercial companies do it.

What I admire most about Hillary is that she never buckles under pressure. She never takes the easy way out. And Hillary Clinton has never quit on anything in her life. And when I think about the kind of president that I want for my girls and all our children, that’s what I want.

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

If we could just find out who’s in charge, we could kill him.

Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in the blood of his followers and the sacrifices of his friends.

I think the first British actor who really worked well in cinema was Albert Finney. He was a back-street Marlon Brando. He brought a great wittiness and power to the screen. The best actor we’ve had.

Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

To me, the black black woman is our essential mother, the blacker she is the more us she is and to see the hatred that is turned on her is enough to make me despair, almost entirely, of our future as a people.

If you are a parent, you have probably already realized that your children are always watching what you do. And just as children watch their parents and emulate their behavior, so do employees who are watching their bosses.

I don’t really regard myself as a political figure.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

To give victory to the right, not bloody bullets, but peaceful ballots only, are necessary.

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.