Empire and liberty.

Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.

I have never really thought that the Left was much in ‚array‘ as far as political purposes were concerned.

People forget… that we structured it so that the government, or the people, would be repaid with a really good rate of return. And as it turns out, that aspect of TARP, that’s what happened.

Free government is the most difficult of all government. But it is everlastingly true that the plain people will make fewer mistakes than any other group of men, no matter how powerful.

Democracy arises out of the notion that those who are equal in any respect are equal in all respects; because men are equally free, they claim to be absolutely equal.

The United States never lost a war or won a conference.

I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.

I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount.

Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

Up until the 1920s, everyone thought the universe was essentially static and unchanging in time.

Great minds are related to the brief span of time during which they live as great buildings are to a little square in which they stand: you cannot see them in all their magnitude because you are standing too close to them.

Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.

Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows – marriage does.

History is more or less bunk.

Oceania was at war with Eurasia; therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia.

Cuba came to be the last country to get rid of Spanish colonialism and the first to shake off the heinous imperialist tutelage.

I will never retire from politics, the revolution, or the ideas I have.

It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.

In politics nothing is contemptible.

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.

Commodities such as gold and silver have a world market that transcends national borders, politics, religions, and race. A person may not like someone else’s religion, but he’ll accept his gold.

Everything isn’t political.

There is a certain enthusiasm in liberty, that makes human nature rise above itself, in acts of bravery and heroism.

To study history means submitting to chaos and nevertheless retaining faith in order and meaning.

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

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

The people made worse off by slavery were those who were enslaved. Their descendants would have been worse off today if born in Africa instead of America. Put differently, the terrible fate of their ancestors benefitted them.

Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is.

Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.

In known history, nobody has had such capacity for altering the universe than the people of the United States of America. And nobody has gone about it in such an aggressive way.

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.

But let me tell you, this gender thing is history. You’re looking at a guy who sat down with Margaret Thatcher across the table and talked about serious issues.

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

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.

Look, when you’re the president, there’s all kinds of things said about us. I mean, it’s just the nature of the job.

Only a liberal senator from Massachusetts would say that a 49 percent increase in funding for education was not enough.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than those attending too small a degree of it.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

Reform is not pleasant, but grievous; no person can reform themselves without suffering and hard work, how much less a nation.

In the late 1960s, the masses were supposed to be passive, not entering into the public arena and having their voices heard.

Well, no one gives aid to Zimbabwe through the Mugabe government.

We would like to live as we once lived, but history will not permit it.

We need to pass comprehensive immigration reform, period.

The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it.

History is a set of lies agreed upon.

Foreignness is all around. Only in the heart of the heart of the country, namely the heart of the United States, can you avoid such a thing. In the center of an empire, you can think of your experience as universal. Outside the empire or on the fringes of the empire, you cannot.

America had often been discovered before Columbus, but it had always been hushed up.

The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy – the one that’s absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes.

Man was born free, and he is everywhere in chains.

All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting ‚the rich‘ to pay ‚their fair share‘ is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.