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

The wicked leader is he who the people despise. The good leader is he who the people revere. The great leader is he who the people say, ‚We did it ourselves.‘

I have been very happy in the House of Representatives.

A gaffe in Washington is someone telling the truth, and telling the truth has never hurt me.

Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.

The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often in the loudest voice.

When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as, is giving people that power.

I never accepted Communist dogma or theory.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

And frankly, I don’t understand – I mean, I’m obviously a card-carrying Democrat – but I can’t understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney, except maybe Mrs. Romney.

If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics – a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage – surely that proves that you are in the right?

We also can’t try to take over and rebuild every country that falls into crisis. That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire, spilling American blood and treasure that ultimately weakens us. It’s the lesson of Vietnam, of Iraq – and we should have learned it by now.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world’s strongest economy.

Leave no authority existing not responsible to the people.

I supported Donald Trump.

The way people look at me these days – that’s the same way I looked at President Obama before I met him. We tend to forget that people who’ve attained a certain position are human.

In order to govern, the question is not to follow out a more or less valid theory but to build with whatever materials are at hand. The inevitable must be accepted and turned to advantage.

But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright Brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.

A constitution is the arrangement of magistracies in a state.

I am a leader by default, only because nature does not allow a vacuum.

I’ve analyzed the best I can… and I have not found an impeachable offense, and therefore resignation is not an acceptable course.

Yup, the whole birther movement was racist.

Power is the measure of the degree of control you have over circumstances in your life and the actions of the people around you. It is a skill that is developed by a deep understanding of human nature, of what truly motivates people, and of the manipulations necessary for advancement and protection.

I believe that Catholics involved in politics carry the values of their religion within them, but have the mature awareness and expertise to implement them. The Church will never go beyond its task of expressing and disseminating its values, at least as long as I’m here.

If we had more hell in the pulpit, we would have less hell in the pew.

You cannot mix sports with politics.

The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history.

Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth’s surface relative to other matter; second, telling other people to do so.

It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

The temptation to take the easy road is always there. It is as easy as staying in bed in the morning and sleeping in. But discipline is paramount to ultimate success and victory for any leader and any team.

I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice.

Barack knows the American Dream because he’s lived it, and he wants everyone in this country to have that same opportunity, no matter who we are or where we’re from or what we look like or who we love.

Let me tell you what I literally told every world leader I’ve met with, and I’ve met them all: It’s never, never, never been a good bet to bet against America. We have the finest fighting force in the world.

Government actually grew during the Reagan years.

A president has an inescapable responsibility to provide direction: What are we trying to achieve? What are we trying to prevent? Why? To do that, he has to both analyze and reflect.

I want a president who will teach our children that everyone in this country matters, a president who truly believes in the vision that our Founders put forth all those years ago that we are all created equal, each a beloved part of the great American story.

But I do not believe that the world would be entirely different if there were more women leaders. Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven’t exactly been non-aggressive – including me.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the undecideds could go one way or another.

Obviously, I’m no fan of the radical left.

To rule is easy, to govern difficult.

The Scoutmaster teaches boys to play the game by doing so himself.

I have always been grateful to Colonel Longley. He proved to me that when people in authority take a stand, good can come out of it.

You want to know whether we’re better off? I’ve got a little bumper sticker for you: Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive. Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive! Osama bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive!

The best leaders understand the motivations of their team members and know their people – their lives and their families. But a leader must never grow so close to subordinates that one member of the team becomes more important than another, or more important than the mission itself.

Politics is the most important of the civil activities and has its own field of action, which is not that of religion.

In a country with millions of people and cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in awhile.

I always believe the rule by king or official leader is outdated. Now we must catch up with the modern world.

If the government ever imposes a tax on books – and I wouldn’t put it past them – I’m in dead trouble.

Don’t interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.

War is not merely a political act but a real political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse, a carrying out of the same by other means.

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.

Even to observe neutrality you must have a strong government.

Latinos are Republican. They just don’t know it yet.

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

It’s one of the few regrets of my presidency – that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. There’s no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I’ll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.

Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.

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 political object is the goal, war is the means of reaching it, and the means can never be considered in isolation from their purposes.

Anger is wonderful. It keeps you going. I’m angry about bankers. About the government.