I hope that no American will waste his franchise and throw away his vote by voting either for me or against me solely on account of my religious affiliation. It is not relevant.

The FBI should not be a political body.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for the common good.

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.

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world – no ideals.

There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

People who bowl vote. Bowlers are not the cultural elite.

Taking care of children has nothing to do with politics. I think perhaps with time, instead of there being a politicization of humanitarian aid, there will be a humanization of politics.

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

It sure is hell to be president.

I became an actress because my mom wanted me to become an actress. It took me until my mid-30s to realize I actually didn’t. I actually wanted to write and direct and be more involved in politics and humanitarian issues.

The money in politics is a cash cow for the media.

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.

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

The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television.

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.

Are you a politician asking what your country can do for you or a zealous one asking what you can do for your country? If you are the first, then you are a parasite; if the second, then you are an oasis in the desert.

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

Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That’s the only way you can get elected.

Remember, no one decides who they’re going to vote for based on the vice president. I mean that literally.

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

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

The trouble with Nixon is that he’s a serious politics junkie. He’s totally hooked and like any other junkie, he’s a bummer to have around, especially as President.

Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past.

How long will it take the citizens of the United States, one wonders, to recognize that the house their country bombed in Iraq is the same one they were living in until it was foreclosed?

There’s no doubt that usually a president’s public image is enhanced by going to war. That never did appeal to me.

There is not a liberal America and a conservative America – there is the United States of America. There is not a black America and a white America and latino America and asian America – there’s the United States of America.

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

Politics have no relation to morals.

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

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

I think Hillary Clinton is a phenomenal woman, and I’ve gotten to know her, and I think she’s made some pretty major contributions over the course of her life.

I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

I personally never expected anything of Obama, and wrote about it before the 2008 primaries. I thought it was smoke and mirrors.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

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.

In the long-run every Government is the exact symbol of its People, with their wisdom and unwisdom; we have to say, Like People like Government.

The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.

As president, I’m committed to making Washington work better and rebuilding the trust of the people who sent us here.

When even one American – who has done nothing wrong – is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth – then all Americans are in peril.

I can die a happy man never having been president of the United States of America. But it doesn’t mean I won’t run.

I’m personally a moderate and a registered independent, so I’m not strongly Democratic or strongly Republican.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Obviously, I’m no fan of the radical left.

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

What is politics? Political system is equal to development politics plus political politics.

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

If… many influential people have failed to understand, or have just forgotten, what we were up against in the Cold War and how we overcame it, they are not going to be capable of securing, let alone enlarging, the gains that liberty has made.

A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.

Half a truth is better than no politics.

Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is.

He knows nothing and thinks he knows everything. That points clearly to a political career.

I know black people love the idea that we finally have a beautiful, good-looking black president. But if he is doing awful things to us, we should wake up.

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.

It was the Congress that imposed ‚Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,‘ it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred.

There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.