That fatal drollery called a representative government.

The United States tyrannizes and pillages the globalized world with its political, economic, technological, and military might.

Anywhere in Latin America there is a potential threat of the pathology of caudillismo and it has to be guarded against.

I’m a singer, not a politician, and I think you don’t want the two to get confused. It’s not OK to be on CNN talking about people starving and then tell the interviewer that your new album is coming out in six months.

Politically, the world is so confused right now – there’s so much suffering caused by various movements by various parties and people in power in government.

The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.

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

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!

We Americans… bear the ark of liberties of the world.

Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other’s speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in.

There are some members of the House leadership whose only mission in life is to demonize the president.

I don’t really regard myself as a political figure.

I found this national debt, doubled, wrapped in a big bow waiting for me as I stepped into the Oval Office.

China has to go along with world trends. That’s democracy, liberty, individual freedom. China sooner or later has to go that way. It cannot go backward.

Israelis would mostly breathe a sigh of relief if Palestinians were to disappear.

Let me just be very clear that the Republican Party will select a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton.

I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

For Forms of Government let fools contest; whatever is best administered is best.

The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men.

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

Republicans have been accused of abandoning the poor. It’s the other way around. They never vote for us.

Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.

I reject the cynical view that politics is a dirty business.

I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left.

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

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.

There’s no way now for you to get a Democratic or Republican nomination without being able to raise $200 or $300 million or more. I would not be inclined to do that, and I would not be capable of doing it.

I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy – but that could change.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

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.

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

Democracy is only a dream: it should be put in the same category as Arcadia, Santa Claus, and Heaven.

When you are in any contest, you should work as if there were – to the very last minute – a chance to lose it. This is battle, this is politics, this is anything.

Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other elements within society.

Socialism in general has a record of failure so blatant that only an intellectual could ignore or evade it.

I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

Assassination is the extreme form of censorship.

What Englishman will give his mind to politics as long as he can afford to keep a motor car?

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

Trump has no sense of shame.

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

Anything important is never left to the vote of the people. We only get to vote on some man; we never get to vote on what he is to do.

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.

Many things shall change in Cuba, but they shall change because of our efforts and despite the United States. Perhaps that empire shall crumble first.

Ohio claims they are due a president as they haven’t had one since Taft. Look at the United States, they have not had one since Lincoln.

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

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

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

I am not a crook.

The Chinese government wants me to say that for many centuries Tibet has been part of China. Even if I make that statement, many people would just laugh. And my statement will not change past history. History is history.

By 1960, the South Africans knew that they were becoming a pariah state.

You’ve got to vote, vote, vote, vote. That’s it; that’s the way we move forward. That’s how we make progress for ourselves and for our country.

I would remind you the lesser of two socialists is still a socialist.

Ronald Reagan used to alarm other constituencies by speaking freely about the End Times foreshadowed in the Bible.

It is unnatural for a majority to rule, for a majority can seldom be organized and united for specific action, and a minority can.

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.

I’ve never seen America as an imperialist or colonialist or meddling country.

The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries.

The elections are run by the same industries that sell toothpaste on television.

There will be no whitewash in the White House.

What is politics? Political system is equal to development politics plus political politics.