The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship is that in a democracy you vote first and take orders later; in a dictatorship you don’t have to waste your time voting.

Democracy is the road to socialism.

It’s not proper for the government to intrude too thoroughly into the domain of the family. It’s inappropriate.

Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think, recognize that the domination of education or of government by any one particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.

What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?

A lot of people have it a lot worse than you do.

We are a forward-looking people, and we must have a forward-looking government.

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

Earth might one day soon resemble the planet Venus.

Reading and writing, like everything else, improve with practice. And, of course, if there are no young readers and writers, there will shortly be no older ones. Literacy will be dead, and democracy – which many believe goes hand in hand with it – will be dead as well.

In the past there were people who were not rich but contented with their living style, laughing and happy all day. But when the new rich people appear, people look at them and ask, ‚why don’t I have a life like that too, a beautiful house, car and garden,‘ and they abandon their values.

A bureaucrat is a Democrat who holds some office that a Republican wants.

For as one star another far exceeds, So souls in heaven are placed by their deeds.

One of the most striking differences between a cat and a lie is that a cat has only nine lives.

The opera is to music what a bawdy house is to a cathedral.

Politics are very much like war. We may even have to use poison gas at times.

I just received the following wire from my generous Daddy; Dear Jack, Don’t buy a single vote more than is necessary. I’ll be damned if I’m going to pay for a landslide.

I don’t vote. I don’t do no voting.

A correct answer is like an affectionate kiss.

What is ominous is the ease with which some people go from saying that they don’t like something to saying that the government should forbid it. When you go down that road, don’t expect freedom to survive very long.

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.

You know we’re going to control the insurance companies.

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.

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.

The voting booth joint is a great leveler; the whole neighborhood – rich, poor, old, young, decrepit and spunky – they all turn out in one day.

If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law.

Writing music is just like writing a book.

I do not believe that government should be in the business of telling women what they should do with their bodies.

My parents were of the generation who thought they were the children of a free Czechoslovakia, the only democracy in central Europe.

Liberty must be limited in order to be possessed.

We don’t believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of Americans.

Pakistan will never be able to match the Indian militarily, and the effort to do so is taking an immense toll on the society.

Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.

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

The U.S. and its allies will do anything they can to prevent authentic democracy in the Arab world.

Economic freedom cannot be sacrificed if political freedom is to be preserved.

Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

Jealousy is both reasonable and belongs to reasonable men, while envy is base and belongs to the base, for the one makes himself get good things by jealousy, while the other does not allow his neighbour to have them through envy.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself.

About all I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation.

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.

In a democracy, the well-being, individuality and happiness of every citizen is important for the overall prosperity, peace and happiness of the nation.

Every President wants to do right.

Government is a contrivance of human wisdom to provide for human wants. People have the right to expect that these wants will be provided for by this wisdom.

Our country was founded by geniuses, but it’s being run by idiots.

The second office in the government is honorable and easy; the first is but a splendid misery.

Concentration of executive power, unless it’s very temporary and for specific circumstances, let’s say fighting world war two, it’s an assault on democracy.

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

In my country we go to prison first and then become President.

Democracy is not static. It is a living force. Every new idea, every new invention offers opportunity for both good and evil.

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.

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

I am a normal guy from the Black Forest, and I do not compare myself with the geniuses.

We are all the President’s men.

For success of any mission, it is necessary to have creative leadership. Creative leadership is vital for government, non-governmental organisations as well as for industries.

Democracy passes into despotism.

There is but an inch of difference between a cushioned chamber and a padded cell.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

See that the imagination of nature is far, far greater than the imagination of man.