Honor is not the exclusive property of any political party.

People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I earned everything I’ve got.

Politics, according to the Social Doctrine of the Church, is one of the highest forms of charity, because it serves the common good. I cannot wash my hands, eh? We all have to give something!

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

America did not invent human rights. In a very real sense human rights invented America.

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

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.

We reached a high point in my opinion with the passage of the civil rights legislation and Martin Luther King’s success and the crusade of others. I think we kind of breathed a sigh of relief as if we had achieved the end of racial discrimination or white supremacy.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

What I believe is that marriage is between a man and a woman, but what I also believe is that we have an obligation to make sure that gays and lesbians have the rights of citizenship that afford them visitations to hospitals, that allow them to be, to transfer property between partners, to make certain that they’re not discriminated on the job.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

I hope that people will finally come to realize that there is only one ‚race‘ – the human race – and that we are all members of it.

Democracy don’t rule the world, You’d better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that’s better left unsaid.

Before I became a chief minister, I never thought that one day I’d be the chief minister.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

My aim is to make the poor look rich and the rich look poor.

Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.

No body can be healthful without exercise, neither natural body nor politic, and certainly, to a kingdom or estate, a just and honourable war is the true exercise.

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 in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children’s futures. And we are all mortal.

It is true that the king has made a truce with the duke of Burgundy for fifteen days and that the duke is to turn over the city of Paris at the end of fifteen days. Yet you should not marvel if I do not enter that city so quickly.

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

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.

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time; all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

People make a big fuss over you when you’re President. But I’m very serious about doing everything I can to make sure that it doesn’t go to my head.

If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.

In a democracy the poor will have more power than the rich, because there are more of them, and the will of the majority is supreme.

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.‘

One of the common failings among honorable people is a failure to appreciate how thoroughly dishonorable some other people can be, and how dangerous it is to trust them.

All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.

Politics is the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

It is better that some should be unhappy rather than that none should be happy, which would be the case in a general state of equality.

Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy.

By what principle of original right is it that one-fiftieth or one-ninetieth of a great nation, by calling themselves a State, have the right to break up and ruin that nation as a matter of original principle?

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion.

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.

The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.

There is no gambling like politics.

It has always been a mystery to me how men can feel themselves honoured by the humiliation of their fellow beings.

No man is above the law and no man is below it: nor do we ask any man’s permission when we ask him to obey it.

We are not actually equal – humanity – if we are not allowed to freely love one another.

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

In our age there is no such thing as ‚keeping out of politics.‘ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.

Like so many American families, our families weren’t asking for much. They didn’t begrudge anyone else’s success or care that others had much more than they did… in fact, they admired it.

I think, in politics, half the people are gonna like you, and half the people are not gonna like you, no matter what you do or what you say… It’s like there are no right answers. If there were, everyone would choose the right answers. They’re all opinions.

We need an adult in the White House. When making life-or-death, war-or-peace decisions, a president can’t just pop off or lash out irrationally.

I want to support other women because of the opportunities I’ve had – and I’ve had a lot of opportunities. What I try as a female director is to do the best job I can and, in the meantime, bring attention to as many other female directors and writers as I can.

In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.

In a democracy, allegations will never improve situations. So, I’m against allegations, but I always welcome criticism.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

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

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

History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis.

I do not believe we will have a war with Iran.

You’ve got to watch the politics of AIDS. The politics of AIDS can work both for and against the victims of AIDS.

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.