I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.

The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

If I’d had good discipline, I might have gone into music.

What I’m asking for is hard. It’s easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn’t possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don’t matter. But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future.

Don’t swap horses in crossing a stream.

I base a lot of decisions on my gut, and going with an independent label was a good one.

‚Bombing Afghanistan back into the Stone Age‘ was quite a favourite headline for some wobbly liberals. The slogan does all the work. But an instant’s thought shows that Afghanistan is being, if anything, bombed out of the Stone Age.

We spend so much time sublimatin‘, thinkin‘ about, ‚What am I going to have for lunch, dinner?‘

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

I’m highly political. I spend an awful lot of time in the U.S. trying to influence decision-makers. But I don’t feel in tune with British politics.

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

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

Do I wear a helmet? Ugh. I do when I’m riding through a precarious part of town, meaning Midtown traffic. But when I’m riding on secure protected lanes or on the paths that run along the Hudson or through Central Park – no, I don’t wear the dreaded helmet then.

History shows that, more often than not, loss of sovereignty leads to liberalisation imposed in the interests of the powerful.

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.

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency.

Richard Nixon was an evil man – evil in a way that only those who believe in the physical reality of the Devil can understand it. He was utterly without ethics or morals or any bedrock sense of decency.

No one person controls Microsoft. The board and the shareholders decide whether they want to have me as CEO.

It is a way to take people’s wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all.

I got no quarrel with them Vietcong.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

The truth of the matter is that Iran is a cancer.

Suppose I criticise Iran. What impact does that have? The only impact it has is in fortifying those who want to carry out policies I don’t agree with, like bombing.

I just didn’t want to get out there anymore; I didn’t want to get back into what I call ‚the swamp.‘ And the other reason why is I don’t think it’s good for the presidency for a former president to be opining about his successor. President Obama’s got plenty of critics – and I’m just not gonna be one.

Entrepreneurs are natural problem-solvers, which means that we always have ideas for new businesses popping into our heads. Having a lot of options is great, but sometimes it can be hard to focus on one when you are keen to move onto the next.

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.

I think politicians really go with the tide.

People seldom do what they believe in. They do what is convenient, then repent.

Leadership is a choice, not a position.

I don’t write policy for my government.

If you don’t like what you’re doing, then don’t do it.

When Hillary served in the Senate, I saw her work day and night as a member of the Armed Services Committee – working with Republicans and Democrats to keep our military strong and protect our troops and their families.

When governments rely increasingly on sophisticated public relations agencies, public debate disappears and is replaced by competing propaganda campaigns, with all the accompanying deceits. Advertising isn’t about truth or fairness or rationality, but about mobilising deeper and more primitive layers of the human mind.

The U.S. increasingly has taken on the characteristics of what we describe as ‚failed states.‘

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

Obama, of course, outspent McCain.

In order to have your voice be heard in Washington, you have to make some little contribution.

Well, no one gives aid to Zimbabwe through the Mugabe government.

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.

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.

I don’t really plan. I’m almost intuitive about things.

And it comes from saying no to 1,000 things to make sure we don’t get on the wrong track or try to do too much. We’re always thinking about new markets we could enter, but it’s only by saying no that you can concentrate on the things that are really important.

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.

A man is usually more careful of his money than he is of his principles.

I just hate meetings. Though it’s true that once you’ve made a lot of money, people around you might be full of ideas about ways to make lots more money and might be disappointed that you don’t want to seize every opportunity to do so.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

This is pure speculation, but for a period of time, a lot of getting into a party was through fundraising and volunteer work, and Republican women had more time to do that than democratic women, who were out there getting jobs.

The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

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

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

What can I know? What ought I to do? What can I hope?

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

Leaders are responsible not for running public opinion polls but for the consequences of their actions.

The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.

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.

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

I definitely connected to the fact that life gets out of control and you end up doing things and wishing you were doing other things instead.

I can’t imagine what this place would be – I can’t imagine what the country would be – with Donald Trump as our president.