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.

Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

All impeachments, I guess, are political.

No one ever teaches well who wants to teach, or governs well who wants to govern.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

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

When I came to Delhi and noticed an insider view, I felt what it was, and I was surprised to see it. It seemed as if dozens of separate governments are running at the same time in one main government. It appeared that everyone has its own fiefdom.

We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation, more than the inhabitants of another country.

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

It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion’s heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar.

Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots.

Governments will always play a huge part in solving big problems. They set public policy and are uniquely able to provide the resources to make sure solutions reach everyone who needs them. They also fund basic research, which is a crucial component of the innovation that improves life for everyone.

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

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.

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’m entirely interested in people, and also other creatures and beings, but especially in people, and I tend to read them by emotional field more than anything. So I have a special interest in what they’re thinking and who they are and who’s hiding behind those eyes and how did he get there, and what’s the story, really?

My brother Bob doesn’t want to be in government – he promised Dad he’d go straight.

We will invest in our people, quality education, job opportunity, family, neighborhood, and yes, a thing we call America.

Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.

Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.

In a democracy, allegations will never improve situations. So, I’m against allegations, but I always welcome criticism.

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

A man without a vote is man without protection.

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

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

The government’s job is good governance for everybody. My government will make policies; if you fit into it, come on board, or stay where you are. My job is not to spoon-feed anyone.

What I hate is nasty, ugly people.

I believe this government cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free.

We are all the President’s men.

We have the best government that money can buy.

Politically, the world is so confused right now – there’s so much suffering caused by various movements by various parties and people in power in government.

It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

It is a vain hope to make people happy by politics.

To govern means to pillage, as everyone knows.

By what principle of original right is it that one-fiftieth or one-ninetieth of a great nation, by calling themselves a State, have the right to break up and ruin that nation as a matter of original principle?

And I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in showing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

In no instance have… the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.

There are many people who feel that it is useless and futile to continue talking about peace and non-violence against a government whose only reply is savage attacks on an unarmed and defenseless people.

Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.

Many Communist government officials have a rigid, dictatorial power, but they live in constant suspicion and fear of anything that might undermine the power they have.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

Constitutions should consist only of general provisions; the reason is that they must necessarily be permanent, and that they cannot calculate for the possible change of things.

America is a Nation with a mission – and that mission comes from our most basic beliefs. We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace – a peace founded upon the dignity and rights of every man and woman.

Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence.

The military can buy our diplomats some time.

The New Deal repudiation of democracy has left the Republican Party alone the guardian of the Ark of the Covenant with its charter of freedom.

Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.

The only time people dislike gossip is when you gossip about them.

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

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It’s because civil society, the conscience of a country, begins to rise up and demand – demand – demand change.

Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.