Politics is almost as exciting as war, and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.

With Benghazi, I don’t see anyone saying, ‚Hey look, I am overall responsible for this and therefore, I take responsibility for what happened. It’s my fault.‘ I haven’t heard that yet. Meanwhile, the other side of the coin, the Osama bin Laden raid, it seems everyone made that decision, and that’s just unbelievable to me.

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

The operations of the federal government will be most extensive and important in times of war and danger; those of the state governments, in times of peace and security.

Every Republican’s voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they’re proposing. Romney wants to let the – he said in the first 100 days he’s going to let the big banks once again write their own rules – unchain Wall Street. They’re gonna put y’all back in chains.

I’m going to stay active as long as I can politically, and with the Carter Center primarily, and if I’m able mentally and physically, will continue to be quite active.

When I go to a restaurant, yeah, I know that a line is probably going to form in front of the table, but didn’t I always wish for that? Yeah, I did.

I remember when my mother, Shyamala Harris, bought our first home. I was thirteen. She was so proud, and my sister and I were so excited. Millions of Americans know that feeling of walking through the front door of their own home for the first time – the feeling of reaching for opportunity and finding it.

Our plans miscarry because they have no aim. When a man does not know what harbor he is making for, no wind is the right wind.

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.

I think that people are tired. They’re tired of the same old kind of politics. People want a new tone to politics.

A politician needs the ability to foretell what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, and next year. And to have the ability afterwards to explain why it didn’t happen.

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.

Facts are not liberals‘ strong suit. Rhetoric is.

Gray Davis can run a dirty campaign better than anyone, but he can’t run a state.

The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labor.

War should be the politics of last resort. And when we go to war, we should have a purpose that our people understand and support.

In politics… never retreat, never retract… never admit a mistake.

For the record, our democracy is revered around the world. And free elections are the best way on Earth to choose our leaders. This is how we elected John F. Kennedy; Ronald Reagan; two George Bushes; Bill Clinton; and Barack Obama. It has worked for decades.

Actually, to be an effective person politically in this country, I think you have to be thirty or over, and also you have to be rich, well-placed, you have to be close to power. And I don’t think that young people, because they look young, can do much, as I think they are counterproductive.

Those who say religion has nothing to do with politics do not know what religion is.

I’ve never been able to understand why a Republican contributor is a ‚fat cat‘ and a Democratic contributor of the same amount of money is a ‚public-spirited philanthropist‘.

Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.

Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.

I have no ambition to govern men; it is a painful and thankless office.

The truth of the matter is that Iran is a cancer.

That old law about ‚an eye for an eye‘ leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.

It isn’t generally the case that liberals dominate entire hierarchies. That isn’t generally how it works, because the hierarchies are usually set up so that conservatives fill up the hierarchies; it’s in the nature of hierarchy.

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.

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.

My son Emilio is running for Congress to continue the fight for social justice.

Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.

The fact is that we would have had comprehensive health care now, had it not been for Ted Kennedy’s deliberately blocking the legislation that I proposed in 1978 or ’79.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.

Three o’clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do.

I am not an Athenian or a Greek, but a citizen of the world.

There is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one side stands more or less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.

I confess I enjoy democracy immensely. It is incomparably idiotic, and hence incomparably amusing.

Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.

It’s impossible, I think, however much I’d become disillusioned politically or evolve into a post-political person, I don’t think I’d ever change my view that socialism is the best political moment humans have ever come up with.

An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.

Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.

I know Gov. Christie. We’ve met a couple of times.

Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.

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

I have no further use for America. I wouldn’t go back there if Jesus Christ was President.

There is probably a perverse pride in my administration… that we were going to do the right thing, even if short-term it was unpopular. And I think anybody who’s occupied this office has to remember that success is determined by an intersection in policy and politics and that you can’t be neglecting of marketing and P.R. and public opinion.

Reading, solitude, idleness, a soft and sedentary life, intercourse with women and young people, these are perilous paths for a young man, and these lead him constantly into danger.

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

War settles nothing.

Nobody wants to put the creditworthiness of the United States in jeopardy. Nobody wants to see the United States default. So we’ve got to seize this moment, and we have to seize it soon.

We shall never be able to remove suspicion and fear as potential causes of war until communication is permitted to flow, free and open, across international boundaries.

I said I was ‚The Greatest,‘ I never said I was the smartest!

When George W. Bush came into office, North Korea had maybe one nuclear weapon and verifiably wasn’t producing any more.

The 1928 Republican Convention opened with a prayer. If the Lord can see His way clear to bless the Republican Party the way it’s been carrying on, then the rest of us ought to get it without even asking.

I’d rather learn from one bird how to sing than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance.

Fear is exciting for me.

You can’t get a contemporary story about what is going on inside government, and how society sees itself, on American TV.

I perhaps ought to say that individually I never was much interested in the Texas question. I never could see much good to come of annexation, inasmuch as they were already a free republican people on our own model.

I cook, I create, I’m incredibly excited by what I do, I’ve still got a lot to achieve.