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

What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.

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!

Do FBI Agents and FBI directors have political beliefs? Sure they do. But they’re not supposed to act on them.

Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with ‚what can I give‘ spirit.

Of what use is a philosopher who doesn’t hurt anybody’s feelings?

No public man can be just a little crooked.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault.

When a man assumes a public trust he should consider himself a public property.

It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it’s perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God.

Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

The number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state.

All religions and all communities have the same rights, and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

The year 2100 will see eugenics universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the unfit.

Shame may restrain what law does not prohibit.

We moralize among ruins.

Treat those who are good with goodness, and also treat those who are not good with goodness. Thus goodness is attained. Be honest to those who are honest, and be also honest to those who are not honest. Thus honesty is attained.

So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the constitution of India. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

Always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as means to your end.

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

I don’t follow politics much.

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

There is no principle worth the name if it is not wholly good.

If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.

I groan daily under a body of sin and corruption. Oh for the time when I shall drop this flesh, and be free from sin!

Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s patriotism.

Judges should avoid commenting on a candidate for public office.

I can do no other than be reverent before everything that is called life. I can do no other than to have compassion for all that is called life. That is the beginning and the foundation of all ethics.

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.

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

The safest course is to do nothing against one’s conscience. With this secret, we can enjoy life and have no fear from death.

I do not pilfer victory.

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.

Never do anything against conscience even if the state demands it.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

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

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.

We need to have business leaders who live by deep, strong principles.

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

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

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

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

A state arises, as I conceive, out of the needs of mankind; no one is self-sufficing, but all of us have many wants.

There might be some serious fun in politics.

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.

Morality is of the highest importance – but for us, not for God.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.

The dropping of bombs on people – isn’t that terrorism?

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

Justice is a temporary thing that must at last come to an end; but the conscience is eternal and will never die.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

The example that America knows how to govern itself is one of the compelling aspects of our national security.