All government, indeed every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue, and every prudent act, is founded on compromise and barter.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

I am not virtuous. Our sons will be if we shed enough blood to give them the right to be.

Most dangerous is that temptation that doth goad us on to sin in loving virtue.

I am such a political person.

The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.

Democracy is our commitment. It is our great legacy, a legacy we simply cannot compromise. Democracy is in our DNA.

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

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

Unless both sides win, no agreement can be permanent.

Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practices it will have neighbors.

Who sows virtue reaps honor.

My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government – he promised Dad he’d go straight.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

The superior man does not, even for the space of a single meal, act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, he cleaves to it. In seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.

Virtue itself scapes not calumnious strokes.

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

Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn’t anticipate.

Which government is the best? The one that teaches us to govern ourselves.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

It’s very difficult for the American people to believe that our government, one of the richest on Earth, is also one of the stingiest on Earth.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, ‚Gee, isn’t that wonderful?‘

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

The government of Israel doesn’t like the kinds of things I say, which puts them into the same category as every other government in the world.

President Assad, I worked with. I know him reasonably well, met with him a few times, and he’s a liar.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

Secrecy is the element of all goodness; even virtue, even beauty is mysterious.

I know the Federal Reserve Bank can continue to print more and more money… but city and state governments cannot.

The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.

Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.

My wife and I don’t compete. We know each other’s preferences, and we work to provide those for each other. One will take over when the other is faced with something he or she dislikes. That’s what friends do.

I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world.

Only on paper has humanity yet achieved glory, beauty, truth, knowledge, virtue, and abiding love.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

The man of life upright has a guiltless heart, free from all dishonest deeds or thought of vanity.

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

Never let your zeal outrun your charity. The former is but human, the latter is divine.

Recommend virtue to your children; it alone, not money, can make them happy. I speak from experience.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

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.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.

I love being in the United States Senate.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

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

Happiness is a virtue, not its reward.

Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples‘ money.

A man must be both stupid and uncharitable who believes there is no virtue or truth but on his own side.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

If you can be well without health, you may be happy without virtue.

I add this, that rational ability without education has oftener raised man to glory and virtue, than education without natural ability.

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.

I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.