The first duty of government is to see that people have food, fuel, and clothes. The second, that they have means of moral and intellectual education.

So in our pride we ordered for breakfast an omelet, toast and coffee and what has just arrived is a tomato salad with onions, a dish of pickles, a big slice of watermelon and two bottles of cream soda.

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

What nicer thing can you do for somebody than make them breakfast?

Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.

An oppressive government is more to be feared than a tiger.

Erudition – that is, reading, writing, and arithmetic – is taught in the schools; but where is the more important quality, character, taught? Nowhere in particular. There is no authorized training for children in character.

Withdrawal of American troops must be a unilateral act, as the invasion of Vietnam by the American government was a unilateral act in the first place.

We never repent of having eaten too little.

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

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

Think of our physical sustenance. It is truly heaven-sent. The necessities of air, food, and water all come to us as gifts from a loving Heavenly Father.

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.

Read my lips: no new taxes.

I think that all people who feel that there is injustice in the world anywhere should learn as much of it as they can bear. That is our duty.

On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Papa, potatoes, poultry, prunes and prism, are all very good words for the lips.

We, the People, recognize that we have responsibilities as well as rights; that our destinies are bound together; that a freedom which only asks what’s in it for me, a freedom without a commitment to others, a freedom without love or charity or duty or patriotism, is unworthy of our founding ideals, and those who died in their defense.

He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.

Philanthropy should be taking much bigger risks that business. If these are easy problems, business and government can come in and solve them.

What pity is it That we can die, but once to serve our country.

I’m the president of the United States. I’m not the emperor of the United States.

The vulgar boil, the learned roast, an egg.

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.

I love being in the United States Senate.

Artists have a responsibility to speak and to act when governments fail, and if we don’t do that, we really deserve the world we get.

No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It’s because civil society, the conscience of a country, begins to rise up and demand – demand – demand change.

Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.

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.

Defending peace is the duty of all.

Fame is a fickle food upon a shifting plate.

No man will ever carry out of the Presidency the reputation which carried him into it.

I believe that a government has only one religion – India first. A government has only one holy book – our Constitution. A government has only one kind of devotion – towards nation.

The essence of Government is power; and power, lodged as it must be in human hands, will ever be liable to abuse.

To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.

The basis of our political system is the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions of government.

As we know, while our species remains alive, everybody has the sacred duty to be optimistic. Ethically, any other behaviour wouldn’t be admissible.

The question really is, are you improving the world? And you can do that in many models. You can do that in government, you can do that in a nonprofit, and you can do it in commercial enterprise.

Ninety-nine percent of the men and women of the FBI… are just professionals. I don’t want Americans, if an FBI agent knocks on their door, to have to be worried about well, is he a Democrat or a Republican? He’s an FBI agent.

Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.

Life in general has never been even close to fair, so the pretense that the government can make it fair is a valuable and inexhaustible asset to politicians who want to expand government.

Loyalty to the Nation all the time, loyalty to the Government when it deserves it.

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

The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore.

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.

What do you think a stimulus is? It’s spending – that’s the whole point! Seriously.

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

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

I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.

There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people, and for the people.

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.

We have food all around us all the time, and if we haven’t eaten for three hours, we think we’re starving. You’re not starving – human beings can go for 30 days without food.

One of the roles of the Presidency is to lead a political party. Having a President in office is usually a huge advantage to a party because it gives the party a mouthpiece and an advocate at the highest level.

The United States Constitution has proved itself the most marvelously elastic compilation of rules of government ever written.

Of course, animals have to be killed for food or to prevent their doing injury to others or to property. But such killing is too often carried out without regard to the pain inflicted.

Every citizen should be a soldier. This was the case with the Greeks and Romans, and must be that of every free state.

I would just like to say something, ladies and gentlemen. Something that I think is very important. It is that, you, we – we own this country. We – we own it. It is not you owning it, and not politicians owning it. Politicians are employees of ours.

I did this book ‚Harvest for Hope,‘ and I learned so much about food. And one thing I learned is that we have the guts not of a carnivore, but of an herbivore. Herbivore guts are very long because they have to get the last bit of nutrition out of leaves and things.

You have to have a certain realism that government is a pretty blunt instrument, and without the constant attention of highly qualified people with the right metrics, it will fall into not doing things very well.

Ancient Rome declined because it had a Senate, now what’s going to happen to us with both a House and a Senate?

The wretched have no compassion, they can do good only from strong principles of duty.