A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

Israelis would mostly breathe a sigh of relief if Palestinians were to disappear.

To lead people walk behind them.

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!

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

But let me tell you, this gender thing is history. You’re looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues.

Sadly, the truth is, there aren’t many people who can be put in high positions who won’t start thinking highly of themselves.

The nose of a mob is its imagination. By this, at any time, it can be quietly led.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.

Put two or three men in positions of conflicting authority. This will force them to work at loggerheads, allowing you to be the ultimate arbiter.

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

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.

How can we help President Obama?

My observation is that whenever one person is found adequate to the discharge of a duty… it is worse executed by two persons, and scarcely done at all if three or more are employed therein.

It is amazing that people who think we cannot afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, and medication somehow think that we can afford to pay for doctors, hospitals, medication and a government bureaucracy to administer it.

I would rather drink weedkiller than support Obamacare.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

I believe that many of my young guys lived because I didn’t waste their lives because I didn’t have the vision in my mind of how to destroy the enemy at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the battlefields.

Listen, I think that people want a president who is going to be interested in the things that keep them up at night, the things that are weighing on them, the things that are debilitating and can be addressed.

You cannot be President of the United States if you don’t have faith. Remember Lincoln, going to his knees in times of trial in the Civil War and all that stuff.

Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.

Kathleen Wynne and her band of radical-left cronies think they have a handle on what constitutes human identity and also what should constitute human morality. And I think that that’s being pushed in a manner in schools that’s completely reprehensible. It’s not education, in my estimation. It’s a form of indoctrination.

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 would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

There were the questions of what kind of First Lady I would be, what issues would I focus on. Those were the questions that were being pounded on me through the campaign. A lot of times, I wondered what in the world Barack was even getting us into.

Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.

Good leaders must communicate vision clearly, creatively, and continually. However, the vision doesn’t come alive until the leader models it.

That government is best which governs least.

Rude people will now & then ask me why I think I know so much about Politics. I tell them it’s because I’m Smart… But that is a lie: The real reason is because I’m an incurable Gambling addict.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

It is a way to take people’s wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all.

A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.

I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.

Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.

You know I vowed when I became President not to talk about the loneliest toughest job in the world and I didn’t.

If you want to reach the top, don’t run over others. Likely, the only way you’ll reach the top is to be carried there by others.

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.

Our schools and colleges are turning out people who cannot feel fulfilled unless they are telling other people what to do.

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.

We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.

If I’m going to get you to do stuff, I need to lead you. I can’t just order you to do it.

As a leader, the first person I need to lead is me. The first person that I should try to change is me.

Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

The 21st century is going to be the American century. Because we lead not only by the example of our power, but by the power of our example. That is the history of the journey of America.

You may be educated abroad, you may be a great scientist, politician, but you always have a sneaking fear that if you don’t go to temples or do the ordinary things that you have been told to do, something evil might happen, so you conform. What happens to the mind that conforms? Investigate it, please.

If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.

Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

I don’t run restaurants that are out of control. We are about establishing phenomenal footholdings with talent.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

Politics has always been ugly to me, and yet I accept that as a fact of life.

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

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.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America – there’s the United States of America.

If I can be a leader, I will.

Great men are like eagles, and build their nest on some lofty solitude.

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?‘

War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.

We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.

If I studied all my life, I couldn’t think up half the number of funny things passed in one session of congress.