One of the peculiarities of Delhi is that the term ‚reform‘ is associated only with passing of laws in Parliament. In fact, the most important reforms are those needed, without new laws, at various level of the government, in work practices and procedures.

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.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

I have a very strict gun control policy: if there’s a gun around, I want to be in control of it.

I’m going to be a vice president very much like George Bush was. He proved to be a very effective vice president, perhaps the most effective we’ve had in a couple of hundred years.

Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.

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

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

To restore the trust of the people, we must reform the way the government operates.

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

Nothing turns out to be so oppressive and unjust as a feeble government.

It’s a good thing we don’t get all the government we pay for.

If you’re in favour of any policy – reform, revolution, stability, regression, whatever – if you’re at least minimally moral, it’s because you think it’s somehow good for people. And good for people means conforming to their fundamental nature.

Men and women may form associations for and among themselves and be governed by stipulations that are mutually acceptable.

The sovereign is called a tyrant who knows no laws but his caprice.

One way to make sure crime doesn’t pay would be to let the government run it.

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

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

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 know the Federal Reserve Bank can continue to print more and more money… but city and state governments cannot.

Political necessities sometime turn out to be political mistakes.

The good of the people is the greatest law.

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

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.

I do think that Magna Carta and international law are worth paying some attention to.

Even if the politics needed doesn’t exist today, we still need to use our voices to make sure that the people in power are focused on the right things. Because this is a democracy, and in a democracy, people are the ones who run the country.

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

It’s very difficult for the American people to believe that our government, one of the richest on Earth, is also one of the stingiest on Earth.

When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

Governments don’t control people like they used to.

There’s no such thing as going to a soapbox and saying, ‚The government’s corrupt,‘ and not having the intelligence service see your face. In the digital world, that can be done.

A public man must never forget that he loses his usefulness when he as an individual, rather than his policy, becomes the issue.

In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.

Some people will have to be afraid. Those who plunder the nation, deliver injustice, will have to feel scared of me. And I am not afraid of admitting this. Government cannot be so lenient that it forgives them.

A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.

The clearest way to show what the rule of law means to us in everyday life is to recall what has happened when there is no rule of law.

Hyperinflation can take virtually your entire life’s savings, without the government having to bother raising the official tax rate at all.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

A Constitution should be short and obscure.

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the President stops being President in his last year.

Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

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

Even when laws have been written down, they ought not always to remain unaltered.

What we need to understand is that when traditions become laws, rules, obligations and expectations others put on us that we don’t want to fulfill, then they lose real meaning and steal the joy from our lives. And if we’re too religious, we won’t be able to be led by the Holy Spirit and enjoy an intimate relationship with Him.

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.

I have been very happy in the House of Representatives.

Laws should be interpreted in a liberal sense so that their intention may be preserved.

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

And that means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise to the American people: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan, period. No one will take it away, no matter what.

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

How can a president not be an actor?

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