One lesson you better learn if you want to be in politics is that you never go out on a golf course and beat the President.

To some degree it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public.

History shows that, more often than not, loss of sovereignty leads to liberalisation imposed in the interests of the powerful.

History reminds us that dictators and despots arise during times of severe economic crisis.

The most fundamental fact about the ideas of the political left is that they do not work. Therefore we should not be surprised to find the left concentrated in institutions where ideas do not have to work in order to survive.

I got no quarrel with them Vietcong.

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 people lose faith in their government, the result is the same whether or not the loss of confidence is justified.

John F. Kennedy was the victim of the hate that was a part of our country. It is a disease that occupies the minds of the few but brings danger to the many.

I think where political issues invade moral situations, spiritual leaders have to speak out.

Politics have no relation to morals.

If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state, because everybody would join the other party.

Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.

You do the policy, I’ll do the politics.

The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television.

I have never cared especially for outdoor sports and have no desire to excel at tennis, swimming, or golf. I’ll leave those things to the men.

While playing golf today I hit two good balls. I stepped on a rake.

If segregationists had their way, I would not be a member of the United States Senate today, I would not be a top contender to be president of the United States.

We’ve switched from a culture that was interested in manufacturing, economics, politics – trying to play a serious part in the world – to a culture that’s really entertainment-based.

For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction.

Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.

Propaganda is to a democracy what the bludgeon is to a totalitarian state.

I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.

Mothers all want their sons to grow up to be president, but they don’t want them to become politicians in the process.

How long will it take the citizens of the United States, one wonders, to recognize that the house their country bombed in Iraq is the same one they were living in until it was foreclosed?

I think, under President Obama, who was a really bright guy – I didn’t agree with a lot of his politics – but we got to the point internationally where our friends didn’t trust us. They were confused. And our enemies didn’t quite respect us.

I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.

Barack Obama would not be President if he were dark skin. You know what I mean? That’s just the truth. I might not be as successful as I am now if I was dark skin.

Marathon running, like golf, is a game for players, not winners. That is why Callaway sells golf clubs and Nike sells running shoes. But running is unique in that the world’s best racers are on the same course, at the same time, as amateurs, who have as much chance of winning as your average weekend warrior would scoring a touchdown in the NFL.

I am not a crook.

I do not think I could myself be brought to support a man for office whom I knew to be an open enemy of, and scoffer at, religion.

Everybody is a political person, whether you say something or you are silent. A political attitude is not whether you go to parliament; it’s how you deal with your life, with your surroundings.

We are not going to be satisfied by politicians saying ‚we support you‘ and then walking away. We won’t be satisfied until they meet our demands and act. That’s why simply taking a selfie or posting support on Twitter isn’t enough. That’s why we have to keep striking.

It is important that the United States remain a two-party system. I’m a fellow who likes small parties and the Republican Party can’t be too small to suit me.

The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.

Ronald Reagan used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the End Times foreshadowed in the Bible.

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

The President is not only the leader of a party, he is the President of the whole people. He must interpret the conscience of America. He must guide his conduct by the idealism of our people.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own.

In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.

I’ve used the prestige and influence of having been a president of the United States as effectively as possible. And secondly, I’ve still been able to carry out my commitments to peace and human rights and environmental quality and freedom and democracy and so forth.

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

Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates.

Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton both had exceptional natural abilities. Nelson Rockefeller was very good statewide but never gained national traction.

In war, you can only be killed once, but in politics, many times.

As a matter of fact, I didn’t make a political speech outside of my state for 20 years.

Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There’s nothing to do but to stand there and take it.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

There is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.

The U.S. couldn’t even get rid of Saddam Hussein. And we all know that the EU is just a passing fad. They’ll be killing each other again in less than a year. I’m sick to death of all these fascist lawsuits.

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.

This administration is going to be cussed and discussed for years to come.

Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

I have a fantasy where Ted Turner is elected President but refuses because he doesn’t want to give up power.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

Some say we should not engage in activism. Instead we should leave everything to our politicians and just vote for a change instead. But what do we do when there is no political will? What do we do when the politics needed are nowhere in sight?