Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

The republican is the only form of government which is not eternally at open or secret war with the rights of mankind.

I am concerned about the whole man. I am concerned about what the people, using their government as an instrument and a tool, can do toward building the whole man, which will mean a better society and a better world.

Part of the problem is there are people in Washington, D.C. in positions of power to whom the border is just a nuisance, and I think some of them believe that illegal immigration is a moral good. It is not. It undermines legal immigration.

Idealism is the noble toga that political gentlemen drape over their will to power.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

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

Unlike presidential administrations, problems rarely have terminal dates.

Finishing second in the Olympics gets you silver. Finishing second in politics gets you oblivion.

I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.

The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else.

I pay attention to politics and technology.

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

There is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.

I think what’s important is for us to decipher what is honest and what is dishonest and be accepting of those things and not operating from fear.

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.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

No part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.

Like religion, politics, and family planning, cereal is not a topic to be brought up in public. It’s too controversial.

Read my lips: no new taxes.

Any government that supports, protects or harbours terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes.

I’m not a politician. And I don’t want to be.

People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook. I earned everything I’ve got.

I think our democracy has it exactly right: two terms, eight years. It’s enough. Because it’s important to have one foot in reality when you have access to this kind of power.

It is almost universally felt that when we call a country democratic we are praising it; consequently, the defenders of every kind of regime claim that it is a democracy, and fear that they might have to stop using the word if it were tied down to any one meaning.

Any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy.

Obama’s not Jesus. He can’t walk on water.

I wish I could make music about politics. I feel like it’s such an art and a talent that I admire tremendously, but when I step into the studio, I step out of the real world, and it’s therapeutic.

President Assad, I worked with. I know him reasonably well, met with him a few times, and he’s a liar.

Divide and rule, the politician cries; unite and lead, is watchword of the wise.

It is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it… anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.

I was a little worried that young people would think the only game was being political and manipulative when really the bigger game is being so good at what you do that nobody can argue with your results.

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read ‚Democracy in America‘ by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.

True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.

There is no gambling like politics.

King Louis Philippe once said to me that he attributed the great success of the British nation in political life to their talking politics after dinner.

I don’t think that a Justice should have uppermost in her mind, ‚A Democratic president appointed me, so I must leave to be sure that another Democratic president can appoint my successor.‘

I am not made for politics because I am incapable of wanting or accepting the death of the adversary.

Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court he ceases to be your friend.

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.

Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated.

Politics is not bean bags. It’s serious, tough stuff.

If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists – to protect them and to promote their common welfare – all else is lost.

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

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

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.

Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they are independent.

I’m completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.

All religions and all communities have the same rights, and it is my responsibility to ensure their complete and total protection. My government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed and religion.

Whenever the speech is corrupted so is the mind.

No woman in my time will be prime minister or chancellor or foreign secretary – not the top jobs. Anyway, I wouldn’t want to be prime minister; you have to give yourself 100 percent.

Government actually grew during the Reagan years.

Where do the evils like corruption arise from? It comes from the never-ending greed. The fight for corruption-free ethical society will have to be fought against this greed and replace it with ‚what can I give‘ spirit.

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.

Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

Politics is the entertainment branch of industry.

You and I are stuck with the necessity of taking the worst of two evils or none at all. So-I’m taking the immature Democrat as the best of the two. Nixon is impossible.

Everything isn’t political.