Fortune, which has a great deal of power in other matters but especially in war, can bring about great changes in a situation through very slight forces.

Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it… You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power.

When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader.

That’s the good thing about being president, I can do whatever I want.

I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.

Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.

A friend in power is a friend lost.

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

You can’t make war in the Middle East without Egypt and you can’t make peace without Syria.

America means far more than a continent bounded by two oceans. It is more than pride of military power, glory in war, or in victory. It means more than vast expanse of farms, of great factories or mines, magnificent cities, or millions of automobiles and radios.

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.

The political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.

What we call Man’s power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument.

Not necessity, not desire – no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything – health, food, a place to live, entertainment – they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it.

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

Mind your speech a little lest you should mar your fortunes.

Probably the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton, but the opening battles of all subsequent wars have been lost there.

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

But the relationship of morality and power is a very subtle one. Because ultimately power without morality is no longer power.

There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one side stands more or less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.

I love it when Muslims go to war with each other, as I do when the Christians do, because it shows there’s no such thing as the Christian world and the Islamic world. That’s all crap.

I saw what happened when a dictator was allowed to take over a piece of a country and the country went down the tubes. And I saw the opposite during the war when America joined the fight.

Organized murder is war, and though we demonstrate against a particular war, the nuclear, or any other kind of war, we have never demonstrated against war.

Many intelligence reports in war are contradictory; even more are false, and most are uncertain.

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.

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

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

If cash comes with fame, come fame; if cash comes without fame, come cash.

Power is competence.

Exceeds man’s might: that dwells with the gods above.

To be able to endure odium is the first art to be learned by those who aspire to power.

Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear.

As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

Something’s very wrong with a nation that would rather spend money on war than take care of its children.

We’ve persevered because of a belief we share with the Iraqi people – a belief that out of the ashes of war, a new beginning could be born in this cradle of civilization. Through this remarkable chapter in the history of the United States and Iraq, we have met our responsibility. Now, it’s time to turn the page.

Smiling makes me feel weak and not in control and not powerful and small.

War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can’t smile, grin. If you can’t grin, keep out of the way till you can.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

I have known war as few men now living know it. It’s very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.

I do not believe that civilization will be wiped out in a war fought with the atomic bomb. Perhaps two-thirds of the people of the earth will be killed.

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

And they that rule in England, in stately conclaves met, alas, alas for England they have no graves as yet.

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

Words are more treacherous and powerful than we think.

It’s not about changing people; it’s sometimes about changing a situation. How can we build an even better situation for them?

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.

I’ve had the good fortune and blessing to run for the offices for which I really wanted to do the work.

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

War is evil, but it is often the lesser evil.

In Europe first and now in America, elected men have taken it upon themselves to indebt their people to create an atmosphere of dependency. And why? For their own selfish need to increase their own personal power.

We cannot be both the world’s leading champion of peace and the world’s leading supplier of the weapons of war.

One of the good things about the way the Gulf War ended in 1991 is, you’d see the Vietnam veterans marching with the Gulf War veterans.

God’s first line of defense – and offense – for every situation is prayer.

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.

In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.

All gods are homemade, and it is we who pull their strings, and so, give them the power to pull ours.