I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business.

What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics.

I supported Donald Trump.

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic, and certainly, to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise.

I don’t think that a Justice should have uppermost in her mind, ‚A Democratic president appointed me, so I must leave to be sure that another Democratic president can appoint my successor.‘

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

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

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.

There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

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

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.

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

If… many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.

There will be no whitewash in the White House.

I love being able to be political without any political affiliation.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

I would remind you the lesser of two socialists is still a socialist.

I haven’t been very active in politics.

And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

Many people, including some conservatives, have been very impressed with how brainy the president and his advisers are. But that is not quite as reassuring as it might seem.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

The United States tyrannizes and pillages the globalized world with its political, economic, technological, and military might.

When they call the roll in the Senate, the Senators do not know whether to answer ‚Present‘ or ‚Not guilty.‘

You can’t get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.

There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.

The Trump phenomenon is in large part a reaction of Middle America to attacks on its values by intellectual and academic communities. There are other reasons, but this is a significant one.

King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.

But do I think that our actions in anyway violate the War Powers Resolution, the answer is no.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

If somebody’s dumb enough to ask me to go to a political convention and say something, they’re going to have to take what they get.

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t ruled politics out.

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 my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

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

If I don’t run for president, we’ll all be OK.

I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.

I don’t like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I’d like to see somebody who’s going in the office. In fact, I’d like to not see them because that way you’d be sure that they’d be working.

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.

Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa’s leading organization – and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think.

You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

How can we help President Obama?

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

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.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

I think America has always been polarized.

Capitalism has worked very well. Anyone who wants to move to North Korea is welcome.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.