Economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.

When I write, the story is always uppermost in my mind, and I feel that everything must be sacrificed to it. All elegant passages, all the curious details, all the so-called beautiful writing – if they are not truly relevant to what I am trying to say, then they have to go.

This thing of being a hero, about the main thing to it is to know when to die.

Do you know something? The minute that blood sacrifice was accepted, Jesus was the first human being that was ever born again. Now that was real – it happened when he was in Hell.

Democracy is the road to socialism.

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

Whatever you want to do, if you want to be great at it, you have to love it and be able to make sacrifices for it.

If something inconveniences my children too much or takes me away from them, I won’t do it.

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

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known.

I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

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

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

When Christ died, He died for you individually just as much as if you’d been the only man in the world.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

In the flush of love’s light, we dare be brave. And suddenly we see that love costs all we are, and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free.

Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

I’m no longer just a candidate. I’m the President. I know what it means to send young Americans into battle, for I have held in my arms the mothers and fathers of those who didn’t return. I’ve shared the pain of families who’ve lost their homes, and the frustration of workers who’ve lost their jobs.

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

If there is one thing I fear less than everything else, it is, I believe, persecution for my opinions. There are a good many points about which I may be diffident, but when it comes to questions of Truth and intellectual independence, there is no holding me – I can envisage no finer end than to sacrifice oneself for a conviction.

I have done for my country, and for all mankind, all that I could do, and I now resign my soul, without fear, to my God – my daughter to my country.

There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.

Democracy don’t rule the world, You’d better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

Like every parent, when you start your family, your life completely changes. And you completely live for someone else. I find that the most extraordinary thing. Your life is handed over to someone else. From that moment on, they come first in every choice you make. It’s the most wonderful thing.

Adultery is the application of democracy to love.

There are still many causes worth sacrificing for, so much history yet to be made.

I am not virtuous. Our sons will be if we shed enough blood to give them the right to be.

Self-government can succeed only through an instructed electorate.

In a democracy, allegations will never improve situations. So, I’m against allegations, but I always welcome criticism.

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

Fame and power are the objects of all men. Even their partial fruition is gained by very few; and that, too, at the expense of social pleasure, health, conscience, life.

If there should prove to be one real, living Free State Democrat in Kansas, I suggest that it might be well to catch him and stuff and preserve his skin as an interesting specimen of that soon-to-be-extinct variety of the genus Democrat.

Which painting in the National Gallery would I save if there was a fire? The one nearest the door of course.

To be able to throw one’s self away for the sake of a moment, to be able to sacrifice years for a woman’s smile – that is happiness.

Democracy substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

I think the self-burning itself on practice of non-violence. These people, you see, they easily use bomb explosive, more casualty people. But they didn’t do that. Only sacrifice their own life. So this also is part of practice of non-violence.

No, there is literally nothing on the business side that I wouldn’t sacrifice in a heartbeat to have an extra couple of hours‘ writing. Nothing.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

We have a great group of guys that really sacrifice every night, care about each other, and try to play the right away.

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

Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.

Our only real hope for democracy is that we get the money out of politics entirely and establish a system of publicly funded elections.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

Democracy as a system has evolved into something that Thomas Jefferson didn’t anticipate.

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

Fifty years of isolating Cuba had failed to promote democracy, setting us back in Latin America. That’s why we restored diplomatic relations, opened the door to travel and commerce, and positioned ourselves to improve the lives of the Cuban people.

A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change.

We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.

The greatest of follies is to sacrifice health for any other kind of happiness.

Great achievement is usually born of great sacrifice, and is never the result of selfishness.

Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow.

Everywhere that freedom stirs, let tyrants fear.

You aren’t going to find anybody that’s going to be successful without making a sacrifice and without perseverance.

To Marines, love of liberty is not an empty phrase… Rather, it’s displayed by blood, sweat, and tears for the fallen.

That fatal drollery called a representative government.

Our public life withers when only the most extreme voices get attention. Most of all, democracy breaks down when the average person feels their voice doesn’t matter; that the system is rigged in favor of the rich or the powerful or some narrow interest.