Mitt Romney subscribes to the cynical logic that says the American dream belongs to some of us but not all of us.

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

Baldwin thought Europe was a bore, and Chamberlain thought it was only a greater Birmingham.

Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment.

My objection to Liberalism is this that it is the introduction into the practical business of life of the highest kind namely, politics of philosophical ideas instead of political principles.

I am certainly not politically affiliated with Mr. Obama.

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.

We have the best government that money can buy.

Diplomacy: the art of restraining power.

I don’t follow politics much.

I don’t see the wisdom in modern politicians that I once saw in men like Dean Acheson, David Bruce, or George Marshall. In my day, the northeastern establishment dominated foreign policy formulation, but the composition and distribution of our population is very different today.

Yup, the whole birther movement was racist.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

My parents shared not only an improbable love, they shared an abiding faith in the possibilities of this nation. They would give me an African name, Barack, or blessed, believing that in a tolerant America your name is no barrier to success.

I don’t really regard myself as a political figure.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

I think that both parties should declare the debt limit as a political weapon of mass destruction which can’t be used. I mean, it is silly to have a country that has 237 years building up its reputation and then have people threaten to tear it down because they’re not getting some other matter.

There is plenty of building material and more than enough manpower to make a decent home for every Cuban. But if we continue to wait for the golden calf, a thousand years will have gone by, and the problem will remain the same.

For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.

Governments are supposed to lie to their citizens.

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

Unrestrained liberalism only makes the strong stronger and the weak weaker and excludes the most excluded.

Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It’s the other way around. They never vote for us.

I perhaps ought to say that individually I never was much interested in the Texas question. I never could see much good to come of annexation, inasmuch as they were already a free republican people on our own model.

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

It is only when the rich are sick that they fully feel the impotence of wealth.

Discrimination has a lot of layers that make it tough for minorities to get a leg up.

No one is pro-abortion.

The idea that putting Americans ‚first‘ requires a withdrawal from the world is simply wrongheaded because a retreat would achieve exactly the opposite for our citizens.

If you are poor, you are not likely to live long.

The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history.

The realities are that, you know, as a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station, you know.

Almost half of the population of the world lives in rural regions and mostly in a state of poverty. Such inequalities in human development have been one of the primary reasons for unrest and, in some parts of the world, even violence.

Very few people can afford to be poor.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

Politics is applesauce.

And I think it’s that time. And I think if you just step aside and Mr. Romney can kind of take over. You can maybe still use a plane. Though maybe a smaller one. Not that big gas guzzler you are going around to colleges and talking about student loans and stuff like that.

It’s plain hokum. If you can’t convince ‚em, confuse ‚em. It’s an old political trick. But this time it won’t work.

Slavery is a weed that grows on every soil.

When I ask OGs why there’s so much division in the streets, nobody never really knows. But you know one thing that everybody always mention? A woman.

Regimes planted by bayonets do not take root.

I have been very happy in the House of Representatives.

Racism is real in this country.

Let me even say before I even get inaugurated, during the transition we are going to be having meetings all across the country with community organizations so that you have input into the agenda for the next presidency of the United States of America.

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 hate victims who respect their executioners.

Democracy passes into despotism.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

Political courage is not political suicide.

The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive.

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.

In politics stupidity is not a handicap.

Trump is a national disgrace and an international pariah.

Politics, as a practise, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

I kept a very full diary of my relationship with Nixon, for some strange reason, until he became president.

In a summer marked by instability in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, I know the world also took notice of the small American city of Ferguson, Missouri – where a young man was killed, and a community was divided. So yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions.

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

The fundamental question I believe is, ‚Is political Islam in our best interest?‘ If not, what is our policy to authoritatively support the countervailing forces?

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.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.