‚Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age‘ was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant’s thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed out of the Stone Age.

War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.

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.

I have been very happy in the House of Representatives.

I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war.

Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.

We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn’t come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn’t resurging. It didn’t work out.

In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

I just use fashion as an excuse to talk about politics. Because I’m a fashion designer, it gives me a voice, which is really good.

War is the domain of physical exertion and suffering.

Part of the problem is there are people in Washington, D.C. in positions of power to whom the border is just a nuisance, and I think some of them believe that illegal immigration is a moral good. It is not. It undermines legal immigration.

I know black people love the idea that we finally have a beautiful, good-looking black president. But if he is doing awful things to us, we should wake up.

War contributes greatly to global warming, which shouldn’t surprise us. All those bombs going off, all those rockets, all those planes and helicopters. All that fuel of various kinds being used. It pollutes the air and water of this very fragile and interconnected planet.

If people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.

The crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, particularly Lebanon, are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it’s likely to harm them.

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

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

I almost laughed about the Machiavellian plans of the presidents of the United States.

The time has come for us to draw the line. The time has come for the responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer.

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

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.

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

America means far more than a continent bounded by two oceans. It is more than pride of military power, glory in war, or in victory. It means more than vast expanse of farms, of great factories or mines, magnificent cities, or millions of automobiles and radios.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

I want the troops from Great Britain and the U.S. to be successful, but by the same token, Afghanistan has always been a screw-up.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

As a matter of fact, I didn’t make a political speech outside of my state for 20 years.

I’m glad I’m not Brezhnev. Being the Russian leader in the Kremlin. You never know if someone’s tape recording what you say.

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

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike.

We have the best government that money can buy.

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.

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‚people.‘ People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war… Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

War is not an exercise of the will directed at an inanimate matter.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would yield every honor which has been accorded by war.

People who identify themselves as conservatives donate money to charity more often than people who identify themselves as liberals. They donate more money and a higher percentage of their incomes.

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

When I look back on what I did for the Left, I’m in a small way quite proud of some of it – I only wish I’d done more.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.

Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love not to mix with it.

There will be no whitewash in the White House.

I think that if I would talk on a political subject, if I talk about it, it would divide the audience on that issue. That’s not my issue.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

When I first went to places where people were suffering from war and persecution, I felt ashamed of my feelings of sadness. I could see more possibilities in my life.

I’m highly political. I spend an awful lot of time in the U.S. trying to influence decision-makers. But I don’t feel in tune with British politics.

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

Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

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

‚In Utero‘ was the first time I’d made an album that reached into the dark side. I remember the conflict and the uncertainty. I remember all those things when I hear ‚Pennyroyal Tea.‘

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

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