Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy.

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

It is a fine game to play – the game of politics – and it is well worth waiting for a good hand before really plunging.

Revenge, lust, ambition, pride, and self-will are too often exalted as the gods of man’s idolatry; while holiness, peace, contentment, and humility are viewed as unworthy of a serious thought.

Positional leaders ignore the fact that every person has hopes, dreams, desires, and goals of his own. And leaders must bring their vision and the aspirations of the people they lead together in a way that benefits everyone.

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

If we can boondoggle ourselves out of this depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of the American people for years to come.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man.

I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere.

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

My objection to Liberalism is this that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind namely, politics of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

At the age of 6, a teacher full of ambitions, who taught in the small public school of Biran, convinced my family that I should travel to Santiago de Cuba to accompany my older sister who would enter a highly prestigious convent school. Including me was a skill of that very teacher from the little school in Biran.

Well, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?

A kingdom founded on injustice never lasts.

One of the most pervasive political visions of our time is the vision of liberals as compassionate and conservatives as less caring.

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

Everything is political. I will never be a politician or even think political. Me just deal with life and nature. That is the greatest thing to me.

People say ‚I want to be rich‘. The question is, ‚Are you willing to do what it takes?‘

I hate letting my teammates down. I know I’m not going to make every shot. Sometimes I try to make the right play, and if it results in a loss, I feel awful. I don’t feel awful because I have to answer questions about it. I feel awful in that locker room because I could have done something more to help my teammates win.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

If I could have worked from the time I was born until I was 18 and never had to work again, I would have done it.

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

Example is leadership.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

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

Every President wants to do right.

The right honourable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

I want to be just a pure spiritual leader.

I think whether you’re having setbacks or not, the role of a leader is to always display a winning attitude.

This President is going to lead us out of this recovery.

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

In order to rally people, governments need enemies… if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.

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?‘

He who dreads hostility too much is unfit to rule.

I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

What kind of people do they think we are? Is it possible they do not realize that we shall never cease to persevere against them until they have been taught a lesson which they and the world will never forget?

I have always been grateful to Colonel Longley. He proved to me that when people in authority take a stand, good can come out of it.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

The commander in the field is always right and the rear echelon is wrong, unless proved otherwise.

Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?

Politics and the pulpit are terms that have little agreement.

To be happy at home is the ultimate result of all ambition, the end to which every enterprise and labor tends, and of which every desire prompts the prosecution.

The men who have guided the destiny of the United States have found the strength for their tasks by going to their knees. This private unity of public men and their God is an enduring source of reassurance for the people of America.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

The same ambition can destroy or save, and make a patriot as it makes a knave.

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.

People were asleep, but I think they’re waking up now. Trump has given everybody a good kick, and people are waking up and realizing they’ve got to get involved.

I don’t want a brat on my team.

I just didn’t want to get out there anymore; I didn’t want to get back into what I call ‚the swamp.‘ And the other reason why is I don’t think it’s good for the presidency for a former president to be opining about his successor. President Obama’s got plenty of critics – and I’m just not gonna be one.

The most practical kind of politics is the politics of decency.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

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

It’s kind of exhilarating, walking through a crazy, insane mob. The most miraculous process is watching a song go from a tiny idea in the middle of the night to something that 55,000 people are singing back to you.

The average Hollywood film star’s ambition is to be admired by an American, courted by an Italian, married to an Englishman and have a French boyfriend.

To do all that one is able to do, is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do, is to be a god.

The terrorist action of 9/11 gave birth to President Obama’s entry to the White House. Not directly, but indirectly.