Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage.

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 was an Eisenhower Republican when I started out at 21 because he promised to get us out of the Korean War.

The people are hungry: It is because those in authority eat up too much in taxes.

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.

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.

I think where political issues invade moral situations, spiritual leaders have to speak out.

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

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin. And therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words ‚Ich bin ein Berliner!‘

Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.

Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.

A reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.

If we can boondoggle ourselves out of this depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of the American people for years to come.

There will be no whitewash in the White House.

In order to rally people, governments need enemies… if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.

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

I’m going to be so much better a president for having been at the CIA that you’re not going to believe it.

Before I became a chief minister, I never thought that one day I’d be the chief minister.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

Politics has become so expensive that it takes a lot of money even to be defeated.

It’s actually very easy for democracy to disappear.

A politician is a man who understands government. A statesman is a politician who’s been dead for 15 years.

I’m not in favour of dividing Hindus and Sikhs. I’m not in favour of dividing Hindus and Christians. All the citizens, all the voters, are my countrymen.

And we have done more in the two and a half years that I’ve been in here than the previous 43 Presidents to uphold that principle, whether it’s ending ‚don’t ask, don’t tell,‘ making sure that gay and lesbian partners can visit each other in hospitals, making sure that federal benefits can be provided to same-sex couples.

I hate all politics. I don’t like either political party. One should not belong to them – one should be an individual, standing in the middle. Anyone that belongs to a party stops thinking.

By most accounts, Aristide is the most popular figure in Haiti.

I have learned, in my life and work as a sportswriter, that big-time Sports and big-time Politics are not so far apart in America. They are both a means to the same end, which is victory… And why not? Victory is good for you, and don’t let anybody tell you different.

Politics is a profession; a serious, complicated and, in its true sense, a noble one.

We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism.

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.

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

I am not the Catholic candidate for President. I am the Democratic Party’s candidate for President, who happens also to be a Catholic.

Half a truth is better than no politics.

I know I got it made while the masses of black people are catchin‘ hell, but as long as they ain’t free, I ain’t free.

Every President wants to do right.

Nothing doth more hurt in a state than that cunning men pass for wise.

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

In the literal sense, there has been no relevant evolution since the trek from Africa. But there has been substantial progress towards higher standards of rights, justice and freedom – along with all too many illustrations of how remote is the goal of a decent society.

This is a wonderful planet, and it is being completely destroyed by people who have too much money and power and no empathy.

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

Domestic policy can only defeat us; foreign policy can kill us.

All government, of course, is against liberty.

We will never have true civilization until we have learned to recognize the rights of others.

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

We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.

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‘.

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

Politics has always been ugly to me, and yet I accept that as a fact of life.

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.

War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it.

Ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors to bullets.

I think I’m one of the most patriotic people that I’ve ever encountered in America. I consider myself a bedrock patriot. I participate very actively in local politics, because my voice might be worthwhile. I participate in a meaningful way – not by donations; I work at it.

To some degree it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public.

In my opinion eight years as president is enough and sometimes too much for any man to serve in that capacity.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

I’m the only president you’ve got.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

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

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

You think the world was shocked when Nixon resigned? Wait till I whup George Foreman’s behind.