The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.

The people are the only legitimate fountain of power, and it is from them that the constitutional charter, under which the several branches of government hold their power, is derived.

I want to support other women because of the opportunities I’ve had – and I’ve had a lot of opportunities. What I try as a female director is to do the best job I can and, in the meantime, bring attention to as many other female directors and writers as I can.

The successful men I admired all built their bodies.

Whether a person is straight or gay, Republican, Democrat, good person, not a good person, they’re all welcome, because to me, church is a place you’re supposed to get healed and whole and loved.

Tell me: when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person?… It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.

I love the natural world – it comes from my culture, which grew out of a people enslaved.

America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.

I’m not focused on the gay and lesbian movement.

When you’re doing a film and the majority of the film is cast black, for me, it’s most important to get people to view those movies as just movies, as just good movies. At the end of the day, regardless of the color of the cast, we’re all doing the same thing in this business: trying to make a good film.

Men are like lions. We hunt.

Freedom in general may be defined as the absence of obstacles to the realization of desires.

I can’t help the way you was born if you was gay.

To like an individual because he’s black is just as insulting as to dislike him because he isn’t white.

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

In every society some men are born to rule, and some to advise.

Democracy passes into despotism.

If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.

If you want to appeal to everyone, you can’t do a world tour and expect black people to show up at every date – when you’re in Australia, when you’re in Dubai, when you’re in Indonesia.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

I loved being Secretary of State, that’s probably evident to everyone who watched me.

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples‘ money.

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.

There are more men ennobled by study than by nature.

When a nation is over-reliant on one or two commodities like oil or precious minerals, corrupt government ministers and their dodgy associates hoard profits and taxes instead of properly allocating them to schools and hospitals.

I think members of the legislature, people who have to run for office, know the connection between money and influence on what laws get passed.

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State.

With my childhood, it’s a wonder I’m not psychotic. I was the little Jewish boy in the non-Jewish neighborhood. It was a little like being the first Negro enrolled in the all-white school. I grew up in libraries and among books, without friends.

I think what you’re seeing is a profound recognition on the part of the American people that gays and lesbians and transgender persons are our brothers, our sisters, our children, our cousins, our friends, our co-workers, and that they’ve got to be treated like every other American. And I think that principle will win out.

Our diversity is our strength. What a dull and pointless life it would be if everyone was the same.

Well, I thought the deal was, when you went to work for the government you weren’t supposed to make money!

I feel like my music has become a lot of things. It’s hard to label the evolution, but I like there to be an evolution. I just like to paint with all different kinds of colors.

The American dream belongs to all of us.

I like policy. It’s why I decided to enter government. The other thing I like about government – you have good days, you have bad days, but you never have a boring day, and that’s important to me.

The responsibility of tolerance lies with those who have the wider vision.

For Christians, who believe they are created in the image of God, it is the Godhead, diversity in unity and the three-in-oneness of God, which we and all creation reflect.

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

We’re a diverse society, and I think the TV is doing a great job in showing that we’re all human beings, that we can all get along, that we can all be together, and I think that’s a marvelous thing.

Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not a President and senators and congressmen and government officials, but the voters of this country.

I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

I have lived and slept in the same bed with English countesses and Prussian farm women… no woman has excited passions among women more than I have.

Every nation ridicules other nations, and all are right.

Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don’t get wet you can keep.

To tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection: it is plunder.

My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.

You know, one race will not be a survivor if the other one dies, and that’s something that we should think about.

There are horrible people who, instead of solving a problem, tangle it up and make it harder to solve for anyone who wants to deal with it. Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.

There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice.

If you were the President of the United States or the Queen of England – you couldn’t have a person who would be more protective than my mother was for me. Which meant really that I could dare to do all sorts of things.

Many interviewers when they come to talk to me, think they’re being progressive by not mentioning in their stories any longer that I’m black. I tell them, ‚Don’t stop now. If I shot somebody you’d mention it.‘

To tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.

I love being in the United States Senate.

By what principle of original right is it that one-fiftieth or one-ninetieth of a great nation, by calling themselves a State, have the right to break up and ruin that nation as a matter of original principle?

A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy, or perhaps both.

Here’s the thing: every office I’ve run for I was the first to win. First person of color. First woman. First woman of color. Every time.

The White House is the finest prison in the world.

Rocks and waters, etc., are words of God, and so are men. We all flow from one fountain Soul. All are expressions of one Love.

To such an extent does nature delight and abound in variety that among her trees there is not one plant to be found which is exactly like another; and not only among the plants, but among the boughs, the leaves and the fruits, you will not find one which is exactly similar to another.

There isn’t anybody that looks like me without clothes on.