Democracy… is a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder; and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequals alike.

The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.

We’ve become, now, an oligarchy instead of a democracy. I think that’s been the worst damage to the basic moral and ethical standards to the American political system that I’ve ever seen in my life.

The individual who can do something that the world wants done will, in the end, make his way regardless of his race.

Now, as a nation, we don’t promise equal outcomes, but we were founded on the idea everybody should have an equal opportunity to succeed. No matter who you are, what you look like, where you come from, you can make it. That’s an essential promise of America. Where you start should not determine where you end up.

A man who is good enough to shed his blood for the country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards.

One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

Empire and liberty.

What I believe unites the people of this nation, regardless of race or region or party, young or old, rich or poor, is the simple, profound belief in opportunity for all – the notion that if you work hard and take responsibility, you can get ahead.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

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?‘

Inferiors revolt in order that they may be equal, and equals that they may be superior. Such is the state of mind which creates revolutions.

Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.

You can’t put democracy and freedom back into a box.

Growing up, I decided, a long time ago, I wouldn’t accept any manmade differences between human beings, differences made at somebody else’s insistence or someone else’s whim or convenience.

There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

A right delayed is a right denied.

My parents taught me never to judge others based on whom they love, what color their skin is, or their religion.

I think one of the great things about the United States has been our ability to maintain a distinction between our military and domestic law enforcement.

The spirit of democracy is not a mechanical thing to be adjusted by abolition of forms. It requires change of heart.

Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making.

Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.

Let us build bridges, my friends, build bridges to human dignity across that gulf that separates black America from white America.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

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

There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.

The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood – rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky – they all turn out in one day.

For success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organisations as well as for industries.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth!

Girls shouldn’t worry about being the equal of men in the business world.

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.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

I can’t help the way you was born if you was gay.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.

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 have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.

There’s no such thing as going to a soapbox and saying, ‚The government’s corrupt,‘ and not having the intelligence service see your face. In the digital world, that can be done.

Today, if you invent a better mousetrap, the government comes along with a better mouse.

I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family it says they’re looting, if you see a white family it says they’re looking for food.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

When you decide to get involved in a military operation in a place like Syria, you’ve got to be prepared, as we learned from Iraq and Afghanistan, to become the government, and I’m not sure any country, either the United States or I don’t hear of anyone else, who’s willing to take on that responsibility.

The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

If you’re white and you’re wrong, then you’re wrong; if you’re black and you’re wrong, you’re wrong. People are people. Black, blue, pink, green – God make no rules about color; only society make rules where my people suffer, and that why we must have redemption and redemption now.

For the sake of peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which all people are at last free to determine their own destiny.

Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

The key is to vote because we need a vote to put the people in power that we want to represent us.

Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.

I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.

Everybody should have a fair deal; everybody should have the chance to life in this world. If we were evolved as human beings, we would hopefully be able to alleviate suffering in the world.

In my country of South Africa, we struggled for years against the evil system of apartheid that divided human beings, children of the same God, by racial classification and then denied many of them fundamental human rights.

Many Communist government officials have a rigid, dictatorial power, but they live in constant suspicion and fear of anything that might undermine the power they have.

My mother never made me do anything for my brothers, like serve them. I think that’s an important lesson, especially for the Latino culture, because the women are expected to be the ones that serve and cook and whatever. Not in our family. Everybody was equal.

Toleration is good for all, or it is good for none.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

Instead of noblemen, let us have noble villages of men.