There’s a tremendous gap between public opinion and public policy.

Pop is totally results-oriented and there is a very strong feedback loop.

Liberals seem to assume that, if you don’t believe in their particular political solutions, then you don’t really care about the people that they claim to want to help.

I shall proceed from the simple to the complex. But in war more than in any other subject we must begin by looking at the nature of the whole; for here more than elsewhere the part and the whole must always be thought of together.

I don’t even know what the issues are. I haven’t paid attention to politics in a long time. It’s actually not something that I really even enjoy. It’s way off my radar.

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.

We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

Now that the House of Commons is trying to become useful, it does a great deal of harm.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

As president, I’m committed to making Washington work better and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here.

No one’s policing their own minds more than an author. You spend a lot of time in your own head analysing what you think about things, and a philosophy comes.

For the record, our democracy is revered around the world. And free elections are the best way on Earth to choose our leaders. This is how we elected John F. Kennedy; Ronald Reagan; two George Bushes; Bill Clinton; and Barack Obama. It has worked for decades.

Gray Davis can run a dirty campaign better than anyone, but he can’t run a state.

A public-opinion poll is no substitute for thought.

Turkey must find its place if, of course, it can heal its internal sores, and none is more malignant than the perennial Kurdish issue.

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

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

There’s a lot of fuss on the Left about election irregularities, like, you know, the voting machines were tampered with, they didn’t count the votes right, and so on. That’s all accurate and of some importance, but of far more importance is the fact that elections just don’t take place, not in any meaningful sense of the term ‚election.‘

Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.

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

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

Nothing could make me forget what the Reagan years had actually been like.

No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

At the bottom of education, at the bottom of politics, even at the bottom of religion, there must be for our race economic independence.

I don’t think there’s anything unique about human intelligence.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount.

One cannot wage war under present conditions without the support of public opinion, which is tremendously molded by the press and other forms of propaganda.

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.

Latinos are Republican. They just don’t know it yet.

‚Obama and Biden want to raise taxes by a trillion dollars.‘ Guess what? Yes, we do in one regard: We want to let that trillion dollar tax cut expire so the middle class doesn’t have to bear the burden of all that money going to the super-wealthy. That’s not a tax raise. That’s called fairness where I come from.

I haven’t been very active in politics.

If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.

Issues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

The advice I’ve been giving to people all my life – that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can’t give up politics, it won’t give you up – was the advice I should have been taking myself.

It’s a good thing we don’t get all the government we pay for.

Biography lends to death a new terror.

Being president isn’t anything like reality TV. It’s not about sending insulting tweets or making fiery speeches; it’s about whether or not the candidate can handle the awesome responsibility of leading this country.

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

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

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 racing is quite boring, sometimes. It’s hard to see how it pulls in fans.

How can a president not be an actor?

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

I don’t want to express my opinion about actual politics, because if I do, I have to be responsible for my decision.

Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

Everything is political. I will never be a politician or even think political. Me just deal with life and nature. That is the greatest thing to me.

Nothing is more despicable than respect based on fear.

Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open.

Politics is like football; if you see daylight, go through the hole.

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

Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit.

You cannot mix sports with politics.

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

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

The public doesn’t mind people living together without being married, providing they don’t overdo it.

There might be some serious fun in politics.

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.