Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.

The momentum of freedom in our world is unmistakable – and it is not carried forward by our power alone. We can trust in that greater power Who guides the unfolding of the years. And in all that is to come, we can know that His purposes are just and true.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

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

Music has the power to inspire the world.

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.

By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.

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.

These people are very unskilled in arms… with 50 men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

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

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it.

The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life.

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.

The government argues that First Amendment rights are outweighed by the need to prosecute those who transmit classified information and documents.

Power is not sufficient evidence of truth.

Where love rules, there is no will to power; and where power predominates, there love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.

Pessimism leads to weakness, optimism to power.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

People that seem so glorious are all show; underneath they are like everyone else.

Over grown military establishments are under any form of government inauspicious to liberty, and are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.

I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

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

One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes a revolution in order to establish a dictatorship.

The biggest problem that we have is that California is being run now by special interests. All of the politicians are not anymore making the moves for the people, but for special interests and we have to stop that.

I think the first British actor who really worked well in cinema was Albert Finney. He was a back-street Marlon Brando. He brought a great wittiness and power to the screen. The best actor we’ve had.

These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert to fleece the people; and now that they have got into a quarrel with themselves, we are called upon to appropriate the people’s money to settle the quarrel.

No human being, however great, or powerful, was ever so free as a fish.

The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.

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

My relationship to power and authority is that I’m all for it. People need somebody to watch over them. Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

I know the Federal Reserve Bank can continue to print more and more money… but city and state governments cannot.

The intellectual tradition is one of servility to power, and if I didn’t betray it I’d be ashamed of myself.

Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.

Justice and power must be brought together, so that whatever is just may be powerful, and whatever is powerful may be just.

The ‚public‘ scares me, but people I trust.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

The inquiry constantly is what will please, not what will benefit the people. In such a government there can be nothing but temporary expedient, fickleness, and folly.

It’s a mystery. That’s the first thing that interests me about the idea of God. If there is one, it’s mysterious and powerful and awesome to even consider the concept, and you have to take it seriously.

I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

Optimism comes less easily today, not because democracy is less vigorous, but because democracy’s enemies have refined their instruments of repression.

The United States tyrannizes and pillages the globalized world with its political, economic, technological, and military might.

I like policy. It’s why I decided to enter government. The other thing I like about government – you have good days, you have bad days, but you never have a boring day, and that’s important to me.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

Next to enjoying ourselves, the next greatest pleasure consists in preventing others from enjoying themselves, or, more generally, in the acquisition of power.

I don’t vote. I don’t do no voting.

A very large majority of the U.S. population is in favor of establishing diplomatic relations with Cuba and has been for a long time with some fluctuations. And even part of the business world is in favor of it, too. But the government won’t allow it.

If the United States loses the economic weapons of control, it is very much weakened.

To understand the power of the priesthood, we must know its limitations.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself, so that those who govern can govern. But what is the best that we can offer to those who govern? Prayer!

The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all.

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.