If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.

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.

Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you’re the mayor. The bad news is, now you’re the mayor.

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

Everybody has a little bit of Watergate in him.

Politicians must set their aims for the high ground and according to our various leanings, Democratic, Republican, Independent, we will follow. Politicians must be told if they continue to sink into the mud of obscenity, they will proceed alone.

The thought of being President frightens me and I do not think I want the job.

You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.

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

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

Lincoln said you cannot be President without spending some item on your knees. I have repeated that and a bunch of Atheists got all over me. Wait a minute. Does that mean that you cannot be President if you are an Atheist? I say yea that does mean that.

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.

Politically there were failures. And also on the personal level, there were tremendous failures.

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.

Conservatism discards Prescription, shrinks from Principle, disavows Progress; having rejected all respect for antiquity, it offers no redress for the present, and makes no preparation for the future.

The effort to try to present the Social Security program as if it’s a major problem, that’s just a hidden way of trying to undermine and destroy it.

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

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

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

When we are sick, we want an uncommon doctor; when we have a construction job to do, we want an uncommon engineer, and when we are at war, we want an uncommon general. It is only when we get into politics that we are satisfied with the common man.

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

The right honourable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing, and walked away with their clothes. He has left them in the full enjoyment of their liberal positions, and he is himself a strict conservative of their garments.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

Everything is changing. People are taking their comedians seriously and the politicians as a joke.

Experience has shown how deeply the seeds of war are planted by economic rivalry and social injustice.

Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It’s too controversial.

I’m a singer, not a politician, and I think you don’t want the two to get confused. It’s not OK to be on CNN talking about people starving and then tell the interviewer that your new album is coming out in six months.

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

An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.

A lot has happened over the years. And while this nation has been tested by war, and it’s been tested by recession and all manner of challenges – I stand before you again tonight, after almost two terms as your president, to tell you I am more optimistic about the future of America than ever before.

You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? Wait till I whup George Foreman’s behind.

We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country.

A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth, and telling the truth has never hurt me.

I stay out of politics because if I begin thinking too much about politics, I’ll probably… drop writing children’s books and become a political cartoonist again.

I almost laughed about the Machiavellian plans of the presidents of the United States.

I would not vote for the mayor. It’s not just because he didn’t invite me to dinner, but because on my way into town from the airport there were such enormous potholes.

War is the continuation of politics by other means.

One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

Capitalism is using its money; we socialists throw it away.

Government actually grew during the Reagan years.

The government of Israel doesn’t like the kinds of things I say, which puts them into the same category as every other government in the world.

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.

Running for office is similar to being a trial lawyer in a very long trial. It requires adrenaline and stamina; it requires being in shape mentally and emotionally. It’s a marathon.

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

Castro couldn’t even go to the bathroom unless the Soviet Union put the nickel in the toilet.

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

The human being is in the most literal sense a political animal, not merely a gregarious animal, but an animal which can individuate itself only in the midst of society.

Politics… have always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

I am an anarchist in politics and an impressionist in art as well as a symbolist in literature. Not that I understand what these terms mean, but I take them to be all merely synonyms of pessimist.

NATO was constructed on the – with the reason, whether one believes it or not, that it was going to defend Western Europe from Russian assault. Once the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was beginning to collapse, that reason was gone. So, first question: why does NATO exist?

In a time of domestic crisis, men of goodwill and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics.

I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.

The Iranian government is undoubtedly a severe danger to its own population, but not beyond that.

If people wonder, yes, Hillary Clinton is my friend. She has been a friend to me and Barack and Malia and Sasha, and Bill and Chelsea have been embracing and supportive from the very day my husband took the oath of office.

I have been very happy in the House of Representatives.

I’m not a politician. And I don’t want to be.

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.

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

My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you I just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.

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