So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private individuals will occasionally kill theirs.

Syntax, my lad. It has been restored to the highest place in the republic.

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

War is a contagion.

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.

Never let your sense of morals get in the way of doing what’s right.

Laws made by common consent must not be trampled on by individuals.

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

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

We all have the duty to do good.

I would not give half a guinea to live under one form of government other than another. It is of no moment to the happiness of an individual.

The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States – and war is what they got.

It’s rare for anyone to value the opinions of a teenage girl.

People have never looked so ugly as they do today. We just consume far too much.

To be is to do.

A lot of people are bored of all the political correctness.

The crimes against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and elsewhere, particularly Lebanon, are so shocking that the only emotionally valid reaction is rage and a call for extreme actions. But that does not help the victims. And, in fact, it’s likely to harm them.

Rights that do not flow from duty well performed are not worth having.

So far as the government is concerned, there is only one holy book, which is the constitution of India. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

As a matter of self-preservation, a man needs good friends or ardent enemies, for the former instruct him and the latter take him to task.

The desire to annoy no one, to harm no one, can equally well be the sign of a just as of an anxious disposition.

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

Savages we call them because their manners differ from ours.

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

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

The society in ‚The Handmaid’s Tale‘ is a throwback to the early Puritans whom I studied extensively at Harvard under Perry Miller, to whom the book is dedicated.

Concentration of wealth yields concentration of political power. And concentration of political power gives rise to legislation that increases and accelerates the cycle.

We had violence directed at us by the growers themselves, trying to run us down by cars, pointing rifles at us, spraying the people when they were on the picket line with sulfur.

History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

The masculine spirit is under assault. It’s obvious.

For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.

Senator Kerry has been in Washington long enough to take both sides on just about every issue.

You’re morally tainted if you don’t treat both the accuser and the accused with fairness and with respect, and with due process.

What Washington needs is adult supervision.

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

If you would convince a man that he does wrong, do right. Men will believe what they see.

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

You will kill 10 of our men, and we will kill 1 of yours, and in the end it will be you who tire of it.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

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

If I studied all my life, I couldn’t think up half the number of funny things passed in one session of congress.

The former colonies, in Latin America in particular, have a better chance than ever before to overcome centuries of subjugation, violence and foreign intervention, which they have so far survived as dependencies with islands of luxury in a sea of misery.

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.

Where there is no opposition to evil, it multiplies.

War is never a solution; it is an aggravation.

I’m trying to make God more relevant in our society.

The very word ‚secrecy‘ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

I don’t believe in killing whatever the reason!

Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force.

Always forgive your enemies – nothing annoys them so much.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarrelled with him?

When you have to kill a man, it costs nothing to be polite.

Society is always taken by surprise at any new example of common sense.

Everybody looks like clones and the only people you notice are my age. I don’t notice anybody unless they look great, and every now and again they do, and they are usually 70.

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

There is a blessed necessity by which the interest of men is always driving them to the right; and, again, making all crime mean and ugly.

First, how do we give everyone a fair shot at opportunity and security in this new economy? Second, how do we make technology work for us, and not against us – especially when it comes to solving urgent challenges like climate change? Third, how do we keep America safe and lead the world without becoming its policeman?

In many respects, the United States is a great country. Freedom of speech is protected more than in any other country. It is also a very free society.

May you live your life as if the maxim of your actions were to become universal law.

Stop this attitude that older people ain’t any good anymore! We’re as good as we ever were – if we ever were any good.

The society based on production is only productive, not creative.