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

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

I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

I don’t like politicians, and I don’t like politics. I definitely don’t want to be associated with any of them.

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

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

I think, under President Obama, who was a really bright guy – I didn’t agree with a lot of his politics – but we got to the point internationally where our friends didn’t trust us. They were confused. And our enemies didn’t quite respect us.

The next time someone tells you we can trim the budget by cutting aid, I hope you will ask whether it will come at the cost of more people dying.

There’s no reason for the establishment to fear me. But it has every right to fear the people collectively – I am one with the people.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

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.

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.

Hanging out with politicians and corporations is very unhip work. But I think that the U2 audience have turned out to be incredibly subtle in their understanding.

You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

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.

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?

There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

It’s not the tools that you have faith in – tools are just tools. They work, or they don’t work. It’s people you have faith in or not. Yeah, sure, I’m still optimistic I mean, I get pessimistic sometimes but not for long.

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

I’m going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you’re not going to believe it.

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

We can’t have special interests sitting shotgun. We gotta have middle class families up in front. We don’t mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but they gotta sit in back.

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

Ever since I first came here in 1963 to fight Henry Cooper, I have loved the people of England.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

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

If you think you can slander a woman into loving you, or a man into voting for you, try it till you are satisfied.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

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

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

But do I think that our actions in anyway violate the War Powers Resolution, the answer is no.

Everybody has a little bit of Watergate in him.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

Bad food is made without pride, by cooks who have no pride, and no love. Bad food is made by chefs who are indifferent, or who are trying to be everything to everybody, who are trying to please everyone… Bad food is fake food… food that shows fear and lack of confidence in people’s ability to discern or to make decisions about their lives.

Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.

Politics… have always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

Obama’s not Jesus. He can’t walk on water.

There is no gambling like politics.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

The issues that cross a president’s desk are never easy. The easy questions don’t even get to the president.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history.

I got no quarrel with them Vietcong.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

If people continue to feel like Democrats are looking after poor folks and Republicans are looking after rich folks and nobody is looking after me, then we don’t get a lot of stuff done. And the trend lines evidence the fact that folks have gotten squeezed. And obviously, 2007, 2008 really ripped open for people how vulnerable they were.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.

The FBI should not be a political body.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics.

Liberal: a power worshipper without power.

I think governments can’t do much.

I was in enough to get along with people. I was never socially inarticulate. Not a loner. And that saved my life, saved my sanity. That and the writing. But to this day I distrust anybody who thought school was a good time. Anybody.

I have been very happy in the House of Representatives.