All great peoples are conservative.

I don’t argue when people say that my message is simple, but I believe Jesus‘ message was simple. Jesus didn’t go around condemning people.

The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.

I’m opposed to fundamentalism in any form.

Within one’s own family, money is not the measure of things, unless the person is an absolute Scrooge. Only the most extreme kind of monster would put a price on everything.

Behavior is what a man does, not what he thinks, feels, or believes.

I have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.

After it is all over, the religion of man is his most important possession.

I’m not a conservative of any kind.

Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because it is right.

I did not set out to convert anyone to Christianity.

There is no hierarchy of values any more. Real progress is due mainly to human genius, and that’s rare, and usually stems from a real elite, from a hierarchy.

Human life is far more important than just getting to the top of a mountain.

I’m a conservative, but I’m not a nut about it.

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

Doing what’s right isn’t the problem. It is knowing what’s right.

I never dared to be radical when young for fear it would make me conservative when old.

I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.

Modesty forbids what the law does not.

Sometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.

The label ‚liberal‘ or ‚conservative,‘ any – every time I hear that, I think of the great Gilbert and Sullivan song from ‚Iolanthe.‘ It goes, ‚Every gal and every boy that’s born alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative.‘ What do those labels mean? It depends on whose ox is being gored.

I am the son of a freedom fighter, and a son of a freedom fighter automatically imbibes the value of democracy.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

Many Tibetans sacrifice their lives.

I carry a small sheet of paper in my wallet that has written on it the names of people whose opinions of me matter. To be on that list, you have to love me for my strengths and struggles.

Occasionally the conflict between ‚what we stand for‘ and ‚what we do‘ has been forthrightly addressed.

A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.

The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth.

My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God. Non-violence is the means of realising Him.

If you must tell me your opinions, tell me what you believe in. I have plenty of doubts of my own.

All religions must be tolerated… for every man must get to heaven in his own way.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.

The just is close to the people’s heart, but the merciful is close to the heart of God.

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.

It’s one thing to be religious, but it’s another thing to make religion your policy.

I have always reckoned the dignity of the republic of first importance and preferable to life.

I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.

If you were to ask me to choose between democratic values and wealth, power, prosperity and fame, I will very easily and without any doubt choose democratic values.

Many a man will have the courage to die gallantly, but will not have the courage to say, or even to think, that the cause for which he is asked to die is an unworthy one.

For everything I do, I think about a 6-year-old girl and her mom that I saw at my concert last night. I think about what those two individuals would think if I were at a club last night. I never want to be arrested, and I never want to get a DUI, those are my moral values.

Integrity has no need of rules.

I’ve said this time and again: My greatest concern coming into the White House was making sure my girls came out whole and normal, and decent and kind, just like I would expect them to if we were living on the South Side of Chicago. And it takes work to keep White House life normal for the kids.

Each of us has a vision of good and of evil. We have to encourage people to move towards what they think is good… Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.

Every people have gods to suit their circumstances.

If we don’t believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don’t believe in it at all.

Morality is of the highest importance – but for us, not for God.

Compassion is the basis of morality.

I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays.

I don’t believe in colleges and universities.

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

Getting money is not all a man’s business: to cultivate kindness is a valuable part of the business of life.

It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it’s perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

Our heritage and ideals, our code and standards – the things we live by and teach our children – are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings.

There’s no doubt that the Christian right has gone to bed with the more conservative elements of the Republican Party. And there’s been a melding in their goals when it comes to the separation of church and state. I’ve always believed in the separation of church and state.

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.

There is a group of people that I think in good faith honestly believe that further curtailing our Second Amendment rights will enhance public safety. But there’s another group that just hates the Second Amendment.

It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them.

It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case of others: or their case may, by change of circumstances, become his own.