Conquest is not in our principles. It is inconsistent with our government.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Principles are guidelines for human conduct that are proven to have enduring, permanent value.

My government is working for the common man. Our priority is the poor of the country. We want good governance through a dynamic and seamless government.

Damn your principles! Stick to your party.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition.

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

The question of sexual dominance can exist only in the nightmare of that soul which has armed itself, totally, against the possibility of the changing motion of conquest and surrender, which is love.

You know we’re going to control the insurance companies.

We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‚We, the people.‘

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

Unless your government is respectable, foreigners will invade your rights; and to maintain tranquillity, it must be respectable – even to observe neutrality, you must have a strong government.

I had to abandon free market principles in order to save the free market system.

As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I know that the men and women of our intelligence community put their lives on the line every day, and they do very dangerous work to keep our country safe.

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

Artists have a responsibility to speak and to act when governments fail, and if we don’t do that, we really deserve the world we get.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

So act that your principle of action might safely be made a law for the whole world.

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.

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

The day-to-day making of policy is arguing all the time. You’re trying to get the right approach and the right answer, and there are moments that aren’t very pleasant. But in the end, you look at the overall product.

Withdrawal of American troops must be a unilateral act, as the invasion of Vietnam by the American government was a unilateral act in the first place.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

Our object in the construction of the state is the greatest happiness of the whole, and not that of any one class.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.

When I am abroad, I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the government of my own country. I make up for lost time when I come home.

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

The art of government is the organisation of idolatry.

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

No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.

We did not raise armies for glory or for conquest.

There are only two forces in the world, the sword and the spirit. In the long run the sword will always be conquered by the spirit.

We need to understand that we as citizens and as a government in any community throughout this country have no more important obligation than to educate those who are going to replace us.

The ‚morality of compromise‘ sounds contradictory. Compromise is usually a sign of weakness, or an admission of defeat. Strong men don’t compromise, it is said, and principles should never be compromised.

We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country.

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.

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

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.

Any government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

Great ambition is the passion of a great character. Those endowed with it may perform very good or very bad acts. All depends on the principles which direct them.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

Principles and rules are intended to provide a thinking man with a frame of reference.

When I came to Delhi and noticed an insider view, I felt what it was, and I was surprised to see it. It seemed as if dozens of separate governments are running at the same time in one main government. It appeared that everyone has its own fiefdom.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

I go for all sharing the privileges of the government, who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage, who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females).

We are all the President’s men.

It’s not proper for the government to intrude too thoroughly into the domain of the family. It’s inappropriate.

When governments rely increasingly on sophisticated public relations agencies, public debate disappears and is replaced by competing propaganda campaigns, with all the accompanying deceits. Advertising isn’t about truth or fairness or rationality, but about mobilising deeper and more primitive layers of the human mind.