The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

Leadership to me means duty, honor, country. It means character, and it means listening from time to time.

It is the genius of our Constitution that under its shelter of enduring institutions and rooted principles there is ample room for the rich fertility of American political invention.

States are not moral agents.

Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed in terms of how to help people who break them.

The thing is, if you control the Senate meetings, you control the gavel. And the gavel is a very important instrument… an instrument of power. An instrument that establishes the agenda.

This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when he first appears he is a protector.

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.

If the Great Way perishes there will morality and duty. When cleverness and knowledge arise great lies will flourish. When relatives fall out with one another there will be filial duty and love. When states are in confusion there will be faithful servants.

Only aim to do your duty, and mankind will give you credit where you fail.

The measure of a man is what he does with power.

One thing I hope I’ll never be is drunk with my own power. And anybody who says I am will never work in this town again.

What then is freedom? The power to live as one wishes.

Force does not constitute right… obedience is due only to legitimate powers.

The point – the power to hurt – of all figures lies in the truthfulness of their application.

We have the oldest written constitution still in force in the world, and it starts out with three words, ‚We, the people.‘

Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not.

We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others. But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him a proper security is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.

Thaw with her gentle persuasion is more powerful than Thor with his hammer. The one melts, the other breaks into pieces.

Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.

I have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.

I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.

Many Communist government officials have a rigid, dictatorial power, but they live in constant suspicion and fear of anything that might undermine the power they have.

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 often say of George Washington that he was one of the few in the whole history of the world who was not carried away by power.

Communism has never come to power in a country that was not disrupted by war or corruption, or both.

All respect for the office of the presidency aside, I assumed that the obvious and unadulterated decline of freedom and constitutional sovereignty, not to mention the efforts to curb the power of judicial review, spoke for itself.

Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment.

The devil ain’t got no power over me. The devil come, and me shake hands with the devil. Devil have his part to play. Devil’s a good friend, too… because when you don’t know him, that’s the time he can mosh you down.

A whole people with the ballot in their hands possess the most conclusive and unlimited power ever entrusted to humanity.

A cloudy day or a little sunshine have as great an influence on many constitutions as the most recent blessings or misfortunes.

He who has great power should use it lightly.

What this power is I cannot say; all I know is that it exists and it becomes available only when a man is in that state of mind in which he knows exactly what he wants and is fully determined not to quit until he finds it.

There are people who have money and people who are rich.

Conscientious people are apt to see their duty in that which is the most painful course.

In a country with millions of people and cars going everywhere, the enemy is going to get a car bomb out there once in awhile.

I think we have a duty to maintain the light of consciousness to make sure it continues into the future.

The statesman’s duty is to bridge the gap between his nation’s experience and his vision.

To understand the true quality of people, you must look into their minds, and examine their pursuits and aversions.

Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the form of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.

I know of only one duty, and that is to love.

Music belongs to the people. To no one else. To no one else.

Governments don’t control people like they used to.

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.

Freedom does not die from frontal attack. It dies because men in power no longer believe in a system based upon liberty.

I think the first duty of society is justice.

The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.

We don’t thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

‚Star Wars‘ is fun, its exciting, its inspirational, and people respond to that. It’s what they want.

Power has only one duty – to secure the social welfare of the People.

Those newspapers of the nation which most loudly cried dictatorship against me would have been the first to justify the beginnings of dictatorship by somebody else.

The first requisite for the happiness of the people is the abolition of religion.

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

Upon the education of the people of this country the fate of this country depends.

I am not interested in power for power’s sake, but I’m interested in power that is moral, that is right and that is good.

I think the positive competition between states in India is one of the most positive dynamics that the country has.

If the United States loses the economic weapons of control, it is very much weakened.

I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.

Power is the great aphrodisiac.

Tyrants seldom want pretexts.

America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people.