I grew up in San Francisco. And so I’m informed in a certain kind of way about, you know, believing in democracy and believing in America. And I’m a very ardent patriot.

The action we take and the decisions we make in this decade will have consequences far into this century. If America shows weakness and uncertainty, the world will drift toward tragedy. That will not happen on my watch.

While democracy in the long run is the most stable form of government, in the short run, it is among the most fragile.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

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

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.

America is becoming so educated that ignorance will be a novelty. I will belong to the select few.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

No man is good enough to govern another man without the other’s consent.

My father was a negative person. He actually taught me to be negative, if that makes any sense. I remember him saying: ‚You know there’s no point in expecting anything good to happen because it won’t.‘ I grew up in such a negative atmosphere.

America – a great social and economic experiment, noble in motive and far-reaching in purpose.

Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

My folks ain’t graduated from high school or nothing like that, so we always had to struggle in the family – and I come from a big family.

Here in England, everyone’s a pop star, innit, whereas in America they believe in the term artist.

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

America is known as a country that welcomes people to its shores. All kinds of people. The image of the Statue of Liberty with Emma Lazarus‘ famous poem. She lifts her lamp and welcomes people to the golden shore, where they will not experience prejudice because of the color of their skin, the religious faith that they follow.

All of us take offense to anyone who reaps the rewards of living in America without taking on the responsibilities of living in America. And undocumented immigrants who desperately want to embrace those responsibilities see little option but to remain in the shadows, or risk their families being torn apart.

What’s right about America is that although we have a mess of problems, we have great capacity – intellect and resources – to do some thing about them.

My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.

We Americans… bear the ark of liberties of the world.

A whole people with the ballot in their hands possess the most conclusive and unlimited power ever entrusted to humanity.

Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.

My parents weren’t actors or studio executives.

It’s overwhelmingly in the self-interest of the United States of America to have a secure, democratic friend, a strategic partner like Israel.

Israel was not created in order to disappear – Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom.

I always say the strength of democracy lies in criticism. If there is no criticism, that means there is no democracy. And if you want to grow, you must invite criticism. And I want to grow; I want to invite criticism.

I grew up with the biologists. I know how they think.

America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.

Oh, my mama was awesome. Very strict, overreligious, loved the Lord, loved rules. But she had to be that way because of where we were growing up, the neighborhood I was from.

My mother raised me with God. We were poor financially, but we were rich spiritually.

I’m glad I can’t vote.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‚Ich bin ein Berliner!‘

America is the spirit of human exploration distilled.

The key is to vote because we need a vote to put the people in power that we want to represent us.

When you’re born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you’re born in America, you get a front row seat.

I didn’t have a father figure in the house.

I believe with all my heart that America remains ‚the great idea‘ that inspires the world. It is a privilege to be born here. It is an honor to become a citizen here. It is a gift to raise your family here, to vote here, and to live here.

I read in the newspapers they are going to have 30 minutes of intellectual stuff on television every Monday from 7:30 to 8. to educate America. They couldn’t educate America if they started at 6:30.

The only thing I have to go by is what my mother and father told me, how I was brought up.

The fact is, with every friendship you make, and every bond of trust you establish, you are shaping the image of America projected to the rest of the world. That is so important. So when you study abroad, you’re actually helping to make America stronger.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

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

Some believe all that parents, tutors, and kindred believe. They take their principles by inheritance, and defend them as they would their estates, because they are born heirs to them.

We will invest in our people, quality education, job opportunity, family, neighborhood, and yes, a thing we call America.

When I was 18, I went to the Soviet Union. I kept hearing that America was planning to bomb them – lots of bombs were going to come down on these people. I went there not knowing anything, except that I thought the whole thing was stupid and that I wanted to see who these people were that we were going to bomb.

People seem to know about May Day everywhere except where it began, here in the United States of America. That’s because those in power have done everything they can to erase its real meaning.

America is not just a country, it’s an idea, and real Americans are getting busy.

I will never relent in defending America – whatever it takes.

Laughter is America’s most important export.

Our society is illuminated by the spiritual insights of the Hebrew prophets. America and Israel have a common love of human freedom, and they have a common faith in a democratic way of life.

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

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

That fatal drollery called a representative government.

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read ‚Democracy in America‘ by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

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.

Women fight for democracy and engage in the world. But they shouldn’t try and be copying men and be masculine; they should anchor on the home and build on those fundamentals.

Censorship is the tool of those who have the need to hide actualities from themselves and from others. Their fear is only their inability to face what is real, and I can’t vent any anger against them; I only feel this appalling sadness. Somewhere in their upbringing, they were shielded against the total facts of our existence.

I look forward to a great future for America – a future in which our country will match its military strength with our moral restraint, its wealth with our wisdom, its power with our purpose.