It is difficult to make our material condition better by the best law, but it is easy enough to ruin it by bad laws.

There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity – the law of nature and of nations.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Volleyball, I could be pretty good. After a few practices I could be that striker, or whatever they call it.

In karting, you turn up and drive, look at the data and go home. But I like doing more, learning about the engines and how to make them go even better.

The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy’s deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed in 1978 or ’79.

Greece needs to work on a cleaner image. It’s a big problem, as they have this reputation of being so corrupt.

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

How fortunate I was to be alive and a lawyer when, for the first time in United States history, it became possible to urge, successfully, before legislatures and courts, the equal-citizenship stature of women and men as a fundamental constitutional principle.

In a republic this rule ought to be observed: that the majority should not have the predominant power.

Let us remember we are all part of one American family. We are united in common values, and that includes belief in equality under the law, basic respect for public order, and the right of peaceful protest.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

I do hope that some of my dissents will one day be the law.

Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish. Do not overdo it.

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

The example that America knows how to govern itself is one of the compelling aspects of our national security.

President Obama seems completely unaware of how many of the policies he is trying to impose have been tried before, in many times and places around the world, and have failed time and again.

The universe is governed by science. But science tells us that we can’t solve the equations, directly in the abstract.

The Artist is he who detects and applies the law from observation of the works of Genius, whether of man or Nature. The Artisan is he who merely applies the rules which others have detected.

Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against.

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

And so I have studied, I have to tell you, revolutions and uprisings for a long time. They are all slightly different, but what they all look for is some kind of a mechanism to go from an authoritarian system to an open, democratic system.

The Bill of Rights is not an a la carte menu.

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.

The law is reason, free from passion.

Whenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement, and success have no meaning.

I wrote some of the worst poetry west from the Mississippi River, but I wrote. And I finally sometimes got it right.

I don’t think we need more gun control laws.

I have never yet seen any plan which has not been mended by the observations of those who were much inferior in understanding to the person who took the lead in the business.

Were there none who were discontented with what they have, the world would never reach anything better.

A good compromise, a good piece of legislation, is like a good sentence; or a good piece of music. Everybody can recognize it. They say, ‚Huh. It works. It makes sense.‘

Whenever you do something, people try to re-do it and do a better version, especially if they’re in another country.

Never at any point did I feel like missing a training session. I was very keen on improving as a cricketer and as an international player.

In order to fulfill the aspirations of masses, we have to sharpen the tool called the government machinery: we have to make it keen, more dynamic, and it is in this direction that we are working.

I think governments can’t do much.

You have to have a certain realism that government is a pretty blunt instrument, and without the constant attention of highly qualified people with the right metrics, it will fall into not doing things very well.

If the law is upheld only by government officials, then all law is at an end.

Don’t just eat McDonald’s, get something a bit better. Eat a salad. That’s what fashion is. It’s something that is a bit better.

I worked with Congress on legislation, gave speeches to CEOs, military generals and Hollywood executives. But I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families – and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way. So, yeah, I planted a garden and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids.

Common Core is a big win for education.

Men govern nothing with more difficulty than their tongues, and can moderate their desires more than their words.

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right.

Public opinion is the thermometer a monarch should constantly consult.

The law will never make a man free; it is men who have got to make the law free.

Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.

Every man, every woman who has to take up the service of government, must ask themselves two questions: ‚Do I love my people in order to serve them better? Am I humble and do I listen to everybody, to diverse opinions in order to choose the best path?‘ If you don’t ask those questions, your governance will not be good.

I think we all change each other’s paths. I don’t know which law idea that is in physics, but I don’t think any of us can live without affecting one another.

I hope that a move toward clemency with Judge Afiuni would be a step towards the importance of maintaining a properly functioning justice system.

Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap – let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

I am opposed to the accumulation of executive power anywhere.

Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the People.

How easy it is to govern when one follows a system of consulting the will of the people and one holds as the only norm all the actions which contribute to the well being of the people.

The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence.

Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.

Men are more easily governed through their vices than through their virtues.

One of the peculiarities of Delhi is that the term ‚reform‘ is associated only with passing of laws in Parliament. In fact, the most important reforms are those needed, without new laws, at various level of the government, in work practices and procedures.

Even Gaddafi’s adversaries assure us that he stood out for his intelligence as a student; he was expelled from high-school for his anti-monarchic activities. He managed to enroll in another high-school and later graduated in law at the University of Benghazi at the age of 21.