Poetry is about the grief. Politics is about the grievance.

I don’t see the wisdom in modern politicians that I once saw in men like Dean Acheson, David Bruce, or George Marshall. In my day, the northeastern establishment dominated foreign policy formulation, but the composition and distribution of our population is very different today.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t ruled politics out.

I believed what my father taught me about the separation of church and state, so when I was President I never invited Billy Graham to have services in the White House because I didn’t think that was appropriate. He was injured a little bit, until I explained it to him.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

There’s only one person in this race who will be there, who’s always been there for you, and that’s Hillary Clinton’s life story.

Superstition is the poetry of life.

How can we help President Obama?

I think governments can’t do much.

All people are born alike – except Republicans and Democrats.

When I look back on what I did for the Left, I’m in a small way quite proud of some of it – I only wish I’d done more.

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

Whenever a fellow tells me he’s bipartisan, I know he’s going to vote against me.

I despise people who go to the gutter on either the right or the left and hurl rocks at those in the center.

The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments‘ plans.

Winning the election is a good-news, bad-news kind of thing. Okay, now you’re the mayor. The bad news is, now you’re the mayor.

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

Politicians love regulating. That’s part of the whole power structure.

Nationalism has a way of oppressing others.

The figure a poem makes. It begins in delight and ends in wisdom… in a clarification of life – not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.

Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making.

Locally, I’ll vote one way and nationally, maybe another.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

I know black people love the idea that we finally have a beautiful, good-looking black president. But if he is doing awful things to us, we should wake up.

It’s when you begin to lie to yourself in a poem in order to simply make a poem, that you fail.

Here, sir, the people govern; here they act by their immediate representatives.

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.

A cherub’s face, a reptile all the rest.

To announce that there must be no criticism of the president… is morally treasonable to the American public.

Irrespective of age, we mourn for those loved and lost. Mourning is one of the deepest expressions of pure love.

Well, when you come down to it, I don’t see that a reporter could do much to a president, do you?

I think that if I would talk on a political subject, if I talk about it, it would divide the audience on that issue. That’s not my issue.

All the political angst and moral melodrama about getting ‚the rich‘ to pay ‚their fair share‘ is part of a big charade. This is not about economics, it is about politics.

I hope that tomorrow we can all, wherever we are, join in expressing our grief at Diana’s loss, and gratitude for her all-too-short life. It is a chance to show to the whole world the British nation united in grief and respect.

One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.

What Britain needs is an iron lady.

A good Catholic meddles in politics, offering the best of himself, so that those who govern can govern. But what is the best that we can offer to those who govern? Prayer!

The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

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.

So people are talking about revolution. What a revolution it would be to have a woman president.

I have a reputation for taking on governors a lot more powerful than me.

The gross heathenism of civilization has generally destroyed nature, and poetry, and all that is spiritual.

Poetry is the key to the hieroglyphics of nature.

Political necessities sometime turn out to be political mistakes.

Not everybody is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is.

Obama, of course, outspent McCain.

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

Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.

Democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.

To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.

A politician is an arse upon which everyone has sat except a man.

I think I was identified as a failed president because I wasn’t re-elected.

I am making a collection of the things my opponents have found me to be and, when this election is over, I am going to open a museum and put them on display.

There will be no whitewash in the White House.

A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a sense of wrong, a homesickness, a lovesickness.

I can’t go out with a Republican.

Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together.

I am growing handsome very fast indeed! I expect I shall be the belle of Amherst when I reach my 17th year. I don’t doubt that I shall have perfect crowds of admirers at that age. Then how I shall delight to make them await my bidding, and with what delight shall I witness their suspense while I make my final decision.