I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

The label ‚liberal‘ or ‚conservative,‘ any – every time I hear that, I think of the great Gilbert and Sullivan song from ‚Iolanthe.‘ It goes, ‚Every gal and every boy that’s born alive is either a little liberal or else a little conservative.‘ What do those labels mean? It depends on whose ox is being gored.

I’ll be glad to reply to or dodge your questions, depending on what I think will help our election most.

I was a little worried that young people would think the only game was being political and manipulative when really the bigger game is being so good at what you do that nobody can argue with your results.

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

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.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

It is the interest of the commercial world that wealth should be found everywhere.

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants.

Latinos are Republican. They just don’t know it yet.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

Politics is the art of controlling your environment.

Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

In politics nothing is contemptible.

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.

I’m going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you’re not going to believe it.

I believe we can continue the Great Society while we fight in Vietnam.

I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

If you’re sick and tired of the politics of cynicism and polls and principles, come and join this campaign.

So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Actually, to be an effective person politically in this country, I think you have to be thirty or over, and also you have to be rich, well-placed, you have to be close to power. And I don’t think that young people, because they look young, can do much, as I think they are counterproductive.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Part of the problem is there are people in Washington, D.C. in positions of power to whom the border is just a nuisance, and I think some of them believe that illegal immigration is a moral good. It is not. It undermines legal immigration.

Government does not solve problems; it subsidizes them.

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

Personally, I’d like to see more of our leaders take a technocratic approach to solving our biggest problems.

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

My objection to Liberalism is this that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind namely, politics of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.

The Republican Party has become overwhelmingly so extreme that it’s hardly a traditional political party anymore.

Being president isn’t anything like reality TV. It’s not about sending insulting tweets or making fiery speeches; it’s about whether or not the candidate can handle the awesome responsibility of leading this country.

There was a stool there, and some fella kept asking me if I wanted to sit down. When I saw the stool sitting there, it gave me the idea. I’ll just put the stool out there and I’ll talk to Mr. Obama and ask him why he didn’t keep all of the promises he made to everybody.

I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property.

There is no more independence in politics than there is in jail.

Government actually grew during the Reagan years.

Government isn’t that good at rapid advancement of technology. It tends to be better at funding basic research. To have things take off, you’ve got to have commercial companies do it.

I supported Donald Trump.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.

One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

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

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

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.

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!

The day will come – and it is not far off – when the legacy of Lincoln will finally be fulfilled at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, when a black man or woman will sit in the Oval Office. When that day comes, the most remarkable thing about it will be how naturally it occurs.

All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats.

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.‘

I haven’t been very active in politics.

I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

A Conservative Government is an organized hypocrisy.

We didn’t become the most prosperous country in the world just by rewarding greed and recklessness. We didn’t come this far by letting the special interests run wild. We didn’t do it just by gambling and chasing paper profits on Wall Street. We built this country by making things, by producing goods we could sell.

Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.

If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don’t get wet you can keep.

We Conservatives hate unemployment.

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.