Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another.

People want to listen to a message, word from Jah. This could be passed through me or anybody. I am not a leader. Messenger. The words of the songs, not the person, is what attracts people.

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

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

When in doubt tell the truth.

A man can’t be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

This election is about who’s going to be the next President of the United States!

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

Well I do think, when there are more women, that the tone of the conversation changes, and also the goals of the conversation change. But it doesn’t mean that the whole world would be a lot better if it were totally run by women. If you think that, you’ve forgotten high school.

Buy the ticket, take the ride.

He who has a task to perform must know how to take sides, or he is quite unworthy of it.

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

Soldiers generally win battles; generals get credit for them.

The true history of my administration will be written 50 years from now, and you and I will not be around to see it.

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.

Politics is applesauce.

I want to be very clear: I will not sign on to any health plan that adds to our deficits over the next decade.

I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere.

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

Selling out is doing something you don’t really want to do for money. That’s what selling out is.

I can’t imagine what this place would be – I can’t imagine what the country would be – with Donald Trump as our president.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

I don’t think that a leader can control, to any great extent, his destiny. Very seldom can he step in and change the situation if the forces of history are running in another direction.

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.

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.

If a leader doesn’t convey passion and intensity then there will be no passion and intensity within the organization and they’ll start to fall down and get depressed.

Those people who develop the ability to continuously acquire new and better forms of knowledge that they can apply to their work and to their lives will be the movers and shakers in our society for the indefinite future.

The advice I’ve been giving to people all my life – that you may not be interested in the dialectic but the dialectic is interested in you; you can’t give up politics, it won’t give you up – was the advice I should have been taking myself.

I don’t usually admire Sarah Palin, but when she was making fun of this ‚hopey changey stuff,‘ she was right: there was nothing there.

I am such a political person.

To some degree it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public.

Kings are not born: they are made by artificial hallucination.

If I should ever be captured, I want no negotiation – and if I should request a negotiation from captivity they should consider that a sign of duress.

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.

Yeah, I wasn’t chosen to be first. I was just chosen to command that flight. Circumstance put me in that particular role. That wasn’t planned by anyone.

In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.

I would rather have peace in the world than be President.

Any lady who is first lady likes being first lady. I don’t care what they say, they like it.

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

A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.

I don’t think that a Justice should have uppermost in her mind, ‚A Democratic president appointed me, so I must leave to be sure that another Democratic president can appoint my successor.‘

By what principle of original right is it that one-fiftieth or one-ninetieth of a great nation, by calling themselves a State, have the right to break up and ruin that nation as a matter of original principle?

A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man. His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

Governments need to have both shepherds and butchers.

The problem with car dealerships is you’ve already decided what you want to buy before you even go there, and you’re really just going there to talk through some annoying negotiation.

Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.

When Hillary served in the Senate, I saw her work day and night as a member of the Armed Services Committee – working with Republicans and Democrats to keep our military strong and protect our troops and their families.

Don’t blame the marketing department. The buck stops with the chief executive.

I think a number of the leaders are, whether you like it or not, in the hip-hop generation. And when they understand enough, they’ll do wonders. I count on them.

Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.

We must think and act like a nation of a billion people and not like that of a million people. Dream, dream, dream!

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument… an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

Always make those above you feel comfortably superior. In your desire to please or impress them, do not go too far in displaying your talents or you might accomplish the opposite – inspire fear and insecurity.