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.

Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve.

We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‚We, the people.‘

A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it.

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

Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.

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

The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

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

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

Never envy a man his lady. Behind it all lays a living hell.

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.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

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.

Fighting corruption is not just good governance. It’s self-defense. It’s patriotism.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

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.

The military can buy our diplomats some time.

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear – kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor – with the cry of grave national emergency.

Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren’t supposed to make money!

The question really is, are you improving the world? And you can do that in many models. You can do that in government, you can do that in a nonprofit, and you can do it in commercial enterprise.

The biggest problem that we have is that California is being run now by special interests. All of the politicians are not anymore making the moves for the people, but for special interests and we have to stop that.

Beware the tyranny of the weak. They just suck you dry.

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.

Empire and liberty.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

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

The people of God want pastors, not clergy acting like bureaucrats or government officials.

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

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.

A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.

The Constitution preserves the advantage of being armed which Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation where the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

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.

The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of man will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

If something can corrupt you, you’re corrupted already.

We have to do more than just elect a new President if we truly want to change this country.

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.

When a politician uses the word ‚folks,‘ we should brace ourselves for the deceit, or worse, that is coming.

What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

I do have a political agenda. It’s to have as few regulations as possible.

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

Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.

I can’t really criticize the Tea Party people, because I came into the White House pretty much on the same basis that they have become popular. That is dissatisfaction with the way things are going in Washington and disillusionment and disencouragement about the government.

It’s not proper for the government to intrude too thoroughly into the domain of the family. It’s inappropriate.

Corruption is just another form of tyranny.

The people will save their government, if the government itself will allow them.

Government always finds a need for whatever money it gets.

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

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.

It is just as important that business keep out of government as that government keep out of business.

Be wary of the man who urges an action in which he himself incurs no risk.

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

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

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.

The U.S. immigration laws are bad – really, really bad. I’d say treatment of immigrants is one of the greatest injustices done in our government’s name.

Government does not create wealth. The major role for the government is to create an environment where people take risks to expand the job rate in the United States.