Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

I don’t think that a Justice should have uppermost in her mind, ‚A Democratic president appointed me, so I must leave to be sure that another Democratic president can appoint my successor.‘

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.

If you tell people where to go, but not how to get there, you’ll be amazed at the results.

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.

I don’t need a successor, only willing hands to accept the torch for a new generation.

I don’t like to see a president who is just out campaigning all year long or for the last four years. I’d like to see somebody who’s going in the office. In fact, I’d like to not see them because that way you’d be sure that they’d be working.

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.

I am mindful not only of preserving executive powers for myself, but for predecessors as well.

Governing a great nation is like cooking a small fish – too much handling will spoil it.

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

But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

The more responsibility the Scoutmaster gives his patrol leaders, the more they will respond.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

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

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

It’s impossible, I think, however much I’d become disillusioned politically or evolve into a post-political person, I don’t think I’d ever change my view that socialism is the best political moment humans have ever come up with.

Facts are not liberals‘ strong suit. Rhetoric is.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

A President cannot always be popular.

Nationalism is power hunger tempered by self-deception.

What Englishman will give his mind to politics as long as he can afford to keep a motor car?

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

You cannot mix sports with politics.

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.

I’m not trying to get myself up a notch on the ladder by shoving somebody else down on the ladder, whether it’s a candidate or the president of the United States or anybody else. I just don’t believe that’s the way one oughta campaign, I’ve never done that.

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

I have always believed in evolving a consensus before taking any major decision.

Finality is not the language of politics.

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.

With tech companies, whoever’s the leader is always questioned, you know. They say, ‚Is this the end of them?‘ And – there’s more – more times people think that’s the case than it really is the case.

I do not believe we will have a war with Iran.

The more you observe politics, the more you’ve got to admit that each party is worse than the other.

Howard Zinn was magical as a teacher. Witty, irreverent, and wise, he loved what he was teaching and clearly wanted his students to love it, also.

The U.S.S.R. had absolutely nothing to do with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution.

In this age, I don’t care how tactically or operationally brilliant you are: if you cannot create harmony – even vicious harmony – on the battlefield based on trust across service lines, across coalition and national lines, and across civilian/military lines, you need to go home, because your leadership is obsolete.

Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.

War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means.

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.

I believe that many of my young guys lived because I didn’t waste their lives because I didn’t have the vision in my mind of how to destroy the enemy at least cost to our guys and to the innocents on the battlefields.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision.

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.

There’s no political point worth my son’s life.

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.

Even people on the liberal side are starting to worry about going off a fiscal cliff.

Before I went to jail, I was active in politics as a member of South Africa’s leading organization – and I was generally busy from 7 A.M. until midnight. I never had time to sit and think.

When you’re around the kids, you feel like you act the most grown up just because you’re supposed to lead. I say things, like every other parent, that reminds you of your own parents. One thing I do know about being a parent, you understand why your father was in a bad mood a lot.

Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.

The very design of neoliberal principles is a direct attack on democracy.

I have never been a quitter. To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as president I must put the interests of America first Therefore, I shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.

How can a president not be an actor?

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

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

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.

Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the – he said in the first 100 days he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules – unchain Wall Street. They’re gonna put y’all back in chains.

I love that we can trust Barack to do what he says he’s going to do, even when it’s hard – especially when it’s hard.