Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

In the political system, we are a team; politics and bureaucracy, we are a team. The politicians, bureaucrats and the people, we are a team.

War should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

If I’ve got a problem with one of my clients that needs to get solved, guess what I’m going to do? I’m going to call them up, and I’m going to say, ‚Hey, here’s what’s going on. This is the situation. This thing went sideways. I didn’t expect it. Now it’s going to take me some more time to get you what you need.‘ But I’m going to do that upfront.

I’m not a conservative of any kind.

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.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

I think governments can’t do much.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

For the record, our democracy is revered around the world. And free elections are the best way on Earth to choose our leaders. This is how we elected John F. Kennedy; Ronald Reagan; two George Bushes; Bill Clinton; and Barack Obama. It has worked for decades.

I was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.

I’ve rarely kept my distance from kind of – I don’t know if we can call it politics, but kind of, civic engagement and that kind of thing, except I tended to think, ‚Well, do it yourself before you start telling other people what they should be doing.‘

The mark of a true politician is that he is never at a loss for words because he is always half-expecting to be asked to make a speech.

It is as hard and severe a thing to be a true politician as to be truly moral.

We need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness. It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong. The world respects us not just for our arsenal; it respects us for our diversity and our openness and the way we respect every faith.

Nobody wants to put the creditworthiness of the United States in jeopardy. Nobody wants to see the United States default. So we’ve got to seize this moment, and we have to seize it soon.

I like policy. It’s why I decided to enter government. The other thing I like about government – you have good days, you have bad days, but you never have a boring day, and that’s important to me.

We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us.

Trump just looks stupid trying to appeal to blacks and Latinos.

The time has come for us to draw the line. The time has come for the responsible leaders of both political parties to take a stand against overgrown Government and for the American taxpayer.

Politics is the most important of the civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

If you believe that tax policy has nothing to do with the economy, then you’re pretty much like a rock, only dumber.

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.

Putin sought to destabilize Ukraine’s economy.

An individual’s refusal to carry out the criminal acts of his government sets the stage, in the most effective way possible, for the attempt to demonstrate the criminal nature of these acts.

The government argues that First Amendment rights are outweighed by the need to prosecute those who transmit classified information and documents.

Good governance with good intentions is the hallmark of our government. Implementation with integrity is our core passion.

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

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

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.

Syntax, my lad. It has been restored to the highest place in the republic.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Nationalism has a way of oppressing others.

I cannot swallow whole the view of Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.

I’ve seen how the issues that come across a president’s desk are always the hard ones – the problems where no amount of data or numbers will get you to the right answer.

Politics has always been ugly to me, and yet I accept that as a fact of life.

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.

I know that campaigns can seem small, and even silly. Trivial things become big distractions. Serious issues become sound bites. And the truth gets buried under an avalanche of money and advertising. If you’re sick of hearing me approve this message, believe me – so am I.

The CIA is made up of boys whose families sent them to Princeton but wouldn’t let them into the family brokerage business.

Democracy is when the indigent, and not the men of property, are the rulers.

Let me define a leader. He must have vision and passion and not be afraid of any problem. Instead, he should know how to defeat it. Most importantly, he must work with integrity.

I have not endorsed Trump and will not do so.

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

So long as you have food in your mouth, you have solved all questions for the time being.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces.

Politics is applesauce.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

I’ll assure you this: I will have nothing to do with politics.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

Do you realize the responsibility I carry? I’m the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House.

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