On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.

Technology is destructive only in the hands of people who do not realize that they are one and the same process as the universe.

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 I’m the people’s poet, then I ought to be in people’s hands – and, I hope, in their heart.

Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.

The gift of loneliness is sometimes a radical vision of society or one’s people that has not previously been taken into account.

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

All government, of course, is against liberty.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken.

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.

Every actual State is corrupt. Good men must not obey laws too well.

Ninety-nine percent of the men and women of the FBI… are just professionals. I don’t want Americans, if an FBI agent knocks on their door, to have to be worried about well, is he a Democrat or a Republican? He’s an FBI agent.

There might be some serious fun in politics.

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.

I think people inspire me the most. If I meet a person who is incredibly complex, and all of a sudden, I start thinking in rhymes, that person could be a muse.

In the usual progress of things, the necessities of a nation in every stage of its existence will be found at least equal to its resources.

I am often asked if, when I was secretary, I had problems with foreign men. That is not who I had problems with, because I arrived in a very large plane that said United States of America. I had more problems with the men in our own government.

I know that the Lord is always on the side of the right; but it is my constant anxiety and prayer that I and this nation may be on the Lord’s side.

The genius, wit, and the spirit of a nation are discovered by their proverbs.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

You can tell the strength of a nation by the women behind its men.

I draw pleasure in governance, in doing new things and bringing people together. That pleasure is all I need from life.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

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 experience of democracy is like the experience of life itself-always changing, infinite in its variety, sometimes turbulent and all the more valuable for having been tested by adversity.

In Republics, the great danger is, that the majority may not sufficiently respect the rights of the minority.

No government can help the destinies of people who insist in putting sectional and class consciousness ahead of general weal.

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

I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other’s speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in.

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

Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.

The only bipartisanship you ever see is when they finally sign a bill and everybody says, ‚Gee, isn’t that wonderful?‘

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Great countries are those that produce great people.

I don’t write policy for my government.

The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.

I played by the rules of politics as I found them.

We must have government that builds stamina into communities and men. That makes men instead of mendicants.

Not only our future economic soundness but the very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.

It’s actually very easy for democracy to disappear.

Deeply earnest and thoughtful people stand on shaky footing with the public.

Both oligarch and tyrant mistrust the people, and therefore deprive them of their arms.

I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth.

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?

I feel good because I believe I have made progress in rebuilding the people’s trust in their government.

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

Most members of Congress are politicians. They’re bores.

When I was president, I announced and I still maintain that I can live with Roe v. Wade. I did everything I possibly could as president under that ruling, which I don’t think ought to be changed, to minimize the need for abortions. I think every abortion is a result of a horrible series of errors on the part of people involved.

I like people and I like them to like me, but I wear my heart where God put it, on the inside.

I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!

I looked the people of Louisiana in the eye and told them exactly what I thought in terms that normal people use.