Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.

Socialism is the same as Communism, only better English.

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

The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments‘ plans.

Lincoln said you cannot be President without spending some item on your knees. I have repeated that and a bunch of Atheists got all over me. Wait a minute. Does that mean that you cannot be President if you are an Atheist? I say yea that does mean that.

The spirit of this country is totally adverse to a large military force.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

The more people who are dependent on government handouts, the more votes the left can depend on for an ever-expanding welfare state.

Political chaos is connected with the decay of language… one can probably bring about some improvement by starting at the verbal end.

I don’t think generally politician come from democratic country. I think not that thinking. But sometimes little bit short-sighted. They are mainly looking for their next vote.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?

If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.

I don’t think I would run for president.

The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television.

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.

I’m asking myself, ‚What do my girls, what do all our children deserve in their president? What kind of a president do we want for them?‘ Well, to start with, I think we want someone who is a unifying force in this country: someone who sees our differences not as a threat, but as a blessing.

A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of communism.

The world is weary of statesmen whom democracy has degraded into politicians.

We are not about to send American boys 9 or 10 thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.

The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

I don’t think consensus-building politics is what I’m meant to be doing.

I almost laughed about the Machiavellian plans of the presidents of the United States.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

If I studied all my life, I couldn’t think up half the number of funny things passed in one session of congress.

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

Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both had exceptional natural abilities. Nelson Rockefeller was very good statewide but never gained national traction.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

China has to go along with world trends. That’s democracy, liberty, individual freedom. China sooner or later has to go that way. It cannot go backward.

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.

I’m glad I’m not Brezhnev. Being the Russian leader in the Kremlin. You never know if someone’s tape recording what you say.

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

Corruption is a cancer: a cancer that eats away at a citizen’s faith in democracy, diminishes the instinct for innovation and creativity; already-tight national budgets, crowding out important national investments. It wastes the talent of entire generations. It scares away investments and jobs.

Well, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?

The right honourable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.

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.

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.

I have learned, in my life and work as a sportswriter, that big-time Sports and big-time Politics are not so far apart in America. They are both a means to the same end, which is victory… And why not? Victory is good for you, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

It’s impossible, I think, however much I’d become disillusioned politically or evolve into a post-political person, I don’t think I’d ever change my view that socialism is the best political moment humans have ever come up with.

That government is best which governs least.

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

You notice how liberals keep saying, ‚If only Islam would have a Reformation‘ – it can’t have one. It says it can’t. It’s extremely dangerous in that way.

I don’t vote. I don’t do no voting.

Politics doesn’t make strange bedfellows – marriage does.

Obama himself has been highly supportive of Mubarak.

When the President does it, that means that it’s not illegal.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America – there’s the United States of America.

The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

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.

It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

I don’t think President Trump is a racist.

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

Remember, it is not about voting for the perfect candidate – there is no such thing. Presidents are human.

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

A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy.

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

There are still people in my party who believe in consensus politics. I regard them as Quislings, as traitors… I mean it.

Politics is applesauce.