Governance should be designed as an equalizer. Democrats are more inclined towards working families and those who are struggling for a better life.

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

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

In order to fulfill the aspirations of masses, we have to sharpen the tool called the government machinery: we have to make it keen, more dynamic, and it is in this direction that we are working.

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.

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.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

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

We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.

I think whenever something is – whenever there’s something that affects the public good, then there does need to be some form of public oversight.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

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

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

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

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly.

There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

In the 21st century, the countries that thrive will be the ones where citizens know their voices will be heard because the institutions are transparent.

A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself, so that those who govern can govern. But what is the best that we can offer to those who govern? Prayer!

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

When the white man governs himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also governs another man, that is more than self-government – that is despotism.

If people continue to feel like Democrats are looking after poor folks and Republicans are looking after rich folks and nobody is looking after me, then we don’t get a lot of stuff done. And the trend lines evidence the fact that folks have gotten squeezed. And obviously, 2007, 2008 really ripped open for people how vulnerable they were.

The United States is a nation of laws: badly written and randomly enforced.

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

When you have an efficient government, you have a dictatorship.

America isn’t Congress. America isn’t Washington. America is the striving immigrant who starts a business, or the mom who works two low-wage jobs to give her kid a better life. America is the union leader and the CEO who put aside their differences to make the economy stronger.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.

All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats.

I think governments can’t do much.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

The big divide in this country is not between Democrats and Republicans, or women and men, but between talkers and doers.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

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.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the People.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.

I repeat… that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

Men and women may form associations for and among themselves and be governed by stipulations that are mutually acceptable.

I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

I draw pleasure in governance, in doing new things and bringing people together. That pleasure is all I need from life.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

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?‘