People do not make wars; governments do.

In America today, we are nearer a final triumph over poverty than is any other land.

All who think cannot but see there is a sanction like that of religion which binds us in partnership in the serious work of the world.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

There has come into being a kind of a Shia belt from Tehran through Baghdad to Beirut. And this gives Iran the opportunity to reconstruct the ancient Persian Empire – this time under the Shia label.

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.

You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.

The IRS! They’re like the Mafia, they can take anything they want!

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

Certainly the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, have proceeded from the unmarried, or childless men.

Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.

One of the things being in politics has taught me is that men are not a reasoned or reasonable sex.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

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.

War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

A specter is haunting Europe – the specter of communism.

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

I am certain no one sets out to be cruel, but our treatment of the elderly ill seems to have no philosophy to it. As a society, we should establish whether we have a policy of life at any cost.

Sectional football games have the glory and the despair of war, and when a Texas team takes the field against a foreign state, it is an army with banners.

Politics is a noble activity. We should revalue it, practise it with vocation and a dedication that requires testimony, martyrdom, that is to die for the common good.

That sort of half sigh, which, accompanied by two or three slight nods of the head, is pity’s small change in general society.

If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom.

What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature?

I can tell you this: If I’m ever in a position to call the shots, I’m not going to rush to send somebody else’s kids into a war.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

I gave ‚em a sword. And they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish. And I guess if I had been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.

In Japan, the writers have made up a literary community, a circle, a society. I think 90 percent of Japan’s writers live in Tokyo. Naturally, they make a community. There are groups and customs, and so they are tied up in a way.

Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it… You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

Rude people will now & then ask me why I think I know so much about Politics. I tell them it’s because I’m Smart… But that is a lie: The real reason is because I’m an incurable Gambling addict.

The executive has no right, in any case, to decide the question, whether there is or is not cause for declaring war.

Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.

The American escalation of the war in Laos provoked a response by the Communist forces, which now control more of Laos than ever before.

Suppose I criticise Iran. What impact does that have? The only impact it has is in fortifying those who want to carry out policies I don’t agree with, like bombing.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

Well, I have great respect for Senator Hirono.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

Every woman is supposed to have the same set of motives, or else to be a monster.

I don’t think President Trump is a racist.

All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself.

In the long term we can hope that religion will change the nature of man and reduce conflict. But history is not encouraging in this respect. The bloodiest wars in history have been religious wars.

I am such a political person.

Government actually grew during the Reagan years.

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

Remember, no one decides who they’re going to vote for based on the vice president. I mean that literally.

In December, I agreed to extend the tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans because it was the only way I could prevent a tax hike on middle-class Americans. But we cannot afford $1 trillion worth of tax cuts for every millionaire and billionaire in our society. We can’t afford it. And I refuse to renew them again.

Man becomes his most creative during war.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

Putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the West will follow all the rules.

I have this feeling that the world is not in balance. And people are afraid, but we’re also starting to be really brave.

Where there is no opposition to evil, it multiplies.

I stay out of politics because if I begin thinking too much about politics, I’ll probably… drop writing children’s books and become a political cartoonist again.

War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong; and multiplies, instead of indemnifying losses.

We have the best government that money can buy.

I was so upset with what was going on in the world. I just couldn’t stand the idea of being people tortured and that we even had such a thing as war. I hated the older generation, who had not done anything about it. Punk was a call-to-arms for me.

Only a liberal senator from Massachusetts would say that a 49 percent increase in funding for education was not enough.

Israel is a pretty crazy state.

I always tell people that religious institutions and political institutions should be separate. So while I’m telling people this, I myself continue with them combined. Hypocrisy!

Liberalism is totalitarianism with a human face.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

We just seem to have lost all our morals and principles and values these days.