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.

Wealth is not his that has it, but his that enjoys it.

We should understand the source of our authority and something of the keys that control its power.

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

If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts.

The difference between a Republican and a Democrat is the Democrat is a cannibal they have to live off each other, while the Republicans, why, they live off the Democrats.

I find the difference, for me, between having no money and having quite a bit is that the bills get bigger. And that’s it. The lifestyle doesn’t change.

The herd seek out the great, not for their sake but for their influence; and the great welcome them out of vanity or need.

The difference is slight, to the influence of an author, whether he is read by five hundred readers, or by five hundred thousand; if he can select the five hundred, he reaches the five hundred thousand.

Prospering just doesn’t have to do with money.

Once upon a time my political opponents honored me as possessing the fabulous intellectual and economic power by which I created a worldwide depression all by myself.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

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

Therefore I am sure that this, my Coronation, is not the symbol of a power and a splendor that are gone but a declaration of our hopes for the future, and for the years I may, by God’s Grace and Mercy, be given to reign and serve you as your Queen.

Freedom does not die from frontal attack. It dies because men in power no longer believe in a system based upon liberty.

Politics is applesauce.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

My family wasn’t rich, so when it comes to money, I tend to think, ‚Err on the side of caution.‘

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.

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

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.

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.

We are all the President’s men.

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

I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

The rulers of the state are the only persons who ought to have the privilege of lying, either at home or abroad; they may be allowed to lie for the good of the state.

Money is usually attracted, not pursued.

In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us, that the less we use our power the greater it will be.

It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.

This is pure speculation, but for a period of time, a lot of getting into a party was through fundraising and volunteer work, and Republican women had more time to do that than democratic women, who were out there getting jobs.

There’s no way now for you to get a Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise $200 or $300 million or more. I would not be inclined to do that, and I would not be capable of doing it.

By most accounts, Aristide is the most popular figure in Haiti.

Even after Independence, we have had to face the poison of casteism and communalism. How long these evils will continue? Whom does it benefit?

Gold is hoarded. It’s estimated that 95 percent of all gold ever mined is still around.

There’s no doubt that usually a president’s public image is enhanced by going to war. That never did appeal to me.

Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress.

Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.

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.‘

There is that in the glance of a flower which may at times control the greatest of creation’s braggart lords.

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

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

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

My mother, I suppose, is still a main figure in my life because her life was so sad and unfair, and she so brave, but also because she was determined to make me into the Sunday-school-recitation little girl I was, from the age of seven or so, fighting not to be.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

True wealth is not of the pocket, but of the heart and of the mind.

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

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

It is better to live rich than to die rich.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.