Governance should be designed as an equalizer. Democrats are more inclined towards working families and those who are struggling for a better life.

In a democracy, the majority of the citizens is capable of exercising the most cruel oppressions upon the minority.

No policy that does not rest upon some philosophical public opinion can be permanently maintained.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

Men and women may form associations for and among themselves and be governed by stipulations that are mutually acceptable.

In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.

A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself, so that those who govern can govern. But what is the best that we can offer to those who govern? Prayer!

Republicans believe every day is the Fourth of July, but the democrats believe every day is April 15.

If people continue to feel like Democrats are looking after poor folks and Republicans are looking after rich folks and nobody is looking after me, then we don’t get a lot of stuff done. And the trend lines evidence the fact that folks have gotten squeezed. And obviously, 2007, 2008 really ripped open for people how vulnerable they were.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

In order to fulfill the aspirations of masses, we have to sharpen the tool called the government machinery: we have to make it keen, more dynamic, and it is in this direction that we are working.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

There are a lot of conservative people, a lot of moderate people, Republicans, Democrats, in Hollywood. It is just that the conservative people by the nature of the word itself play closer to the vest. They do not go around hot dogging it.

And so I have studied, I have to tell you, revolutions and uprisings for a long time. They are all slightly different, but what they all look for is some kind of a mechanism to go from an authoritarian system to an open, democratic system.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

In the 21st century, the countries that thrive will be the ones where citizens know their voices will be heard because the institutions are transparent.

I had very good support from Democrats and Republicans all throughout my administration. I had a very high batting average. We added more jobs per year in my four years than any other president since the Second World War.

I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere.

Nobody is above the law. Imagine if there allegations against Modi and he is the Prime Minister. Should the case not be pursued just because he has become the PM. It should not be so that it should be stopped. I am not above the law.

Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions.

In the US, there is basically one party – the business party. It has two factions, called Democrats and Republicans, which are somewhat different but carry out variations on the same policies. By and large, I am opposed to those policies. As is most of the population.

He who is to be a good ruler must have first been ruled.

I do think there should be some regulations on AI.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the People.

Unless a president can protect the privacy of the advice he gets, he cannot get the advice he needs.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

The Democrats have pretty much given up on the white working class. That would require a commitment to economic issues, and that’s not their concern.

This country is being managed to death, being public related to death.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.

I will cut taxes – cut taxes – for 95 percent of all working families, because, in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class.

Finality is not the language of politics.

America isn’t Congress. America isn’t Washington. America is the striving immigrant who starts a business, or the mom who works two low-wage jobs to give her kid a better life. America is the union leader and the CEO who put aside their differences to make the economy stronger.

Tyrants have always some slight shade of virtue; they support the laws before destroying them.

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.

The British constitution has always been puzzling and always will be.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

I think whenever something is – whenever there’s something that affects the public good, then there does need to be some form of public oversight.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

I repeat… that all power is a trust; that we are accountable for its exercise; that from the people and for the people all springs, and all must exist.

It is clearly better that property should be private, but the use of it common; and the special business of the legislator is to create in men this benevolent disposition.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.