That government is best which governs least.

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

If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.

It is a way to take people’s wealth from them without having to openly raise taxes. Inflation is the most universal tax of all.

The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.

He who knows nothing is closer to the truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods and errors.

If men were born free, they would, so long as they remained free, form no conception of good and evil.

Such is the feebleness of humanity, such is its perversity, that doubtless it is better for it to be subject to all possible superstitions, as long as they are not murderous, than to live without religion.

I don’t even know what the issues are. I haven’t paid attention to politics in a long time. It’s actually not something that I really even enjoy. It’s way off my radar.

When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.

Our philosophy is that we care about people first.

Let us be moral. Let us contemplate existence.

Freedom of opinion can only exist when the government thinks itself secure.

In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.

If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

We’ve switched from a culture that was interested in manufacturing, economics, politics – trying to play a serious part in the world – to a culture that’s really entertainment-based.

I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartanlike as to put to rout all that was not life.

The foolish man conceives the idea of ‚self.‘ The wise man sees there is no ground on which to build the idea of ‚self;‘ thus, he has a right conception of the world and well concludes that all compounds amassed by sorrow will be dissolved again, but the truth will remain.

Things in our country run in spite of government, not by aid of it.

No matter how dull, or how mean, or how wise a man is, he feels that happiness is his indisputable right.

Nixon is one of the few in the history of this country to run for high office talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time and lying out of both sides.

Who is the wisest man? He who neither knows or wishes for anything else than what happens.

I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.

In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of bloodshed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course, and I may say in advance, there will be no blood shed unless it be forced upon the government. The government will not use force unless force is used against it.

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

Religion is the opium of the masses.

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.

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

Americans… still believe in an America where anything’s possible – they just don’t think their leaders do.

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

Death is the wish of some, the relief of many, and the end of all.

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world – no ideals.

He alone is free who lives with free consent under the entire guidance of reason.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

Death to me means nothing as long as I can die fast.

Our faith is faith in someone else’s faith, and in the greatest matters this is most the case.

I’m not a big politics guy.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.

We are born believing. A man bears beliefs as a tree bears apples.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

Where a man can live, he can also live well.

I am sometimes a fox and sometimes a lion. The whole secret of government lies in knowing when to be the one or the other.

Fear is the mother of morality.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

Hanging out with politicians and corporations is very unhip work. But I think that the U2 audience have turned out to be incredibly subtle in their understanding.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

Of course we all know Biden is the intellect of the Democratic Party. Kind of a grin with a body behind it.

The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased.

I believe that every human has a finite number of heartbeats. I don’t intend to waste any of mine running around doing exercises.

It’s possible – you can never know – that the universe exists only for me. If so, it’s sure going well for me, I must admit.

No man can reveal to you nothing but that which already lies half-asleep in the dawning of your knowledge.

I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman – not me, not Bill, nobody – more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.

We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers.

I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.

All men by nature desire knowledge.

If we can but prevent the government from wasting the labours of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.

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

But we try to pretend, you see, that the external world exists altogether independently of us.

I have just got a new theory of eternity.

Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life.