The government, whether state or central, is elected. That means we have a responsibility to elect the right kind of leaders.

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

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

Things must be done by parties, not by persons using parties as tools.

Those who commit injustice bear the greatest burden.

Any people anywhere, being inclined and having the power, have the right to rise up, and shake off the existing government, and form a new one that suits them better. This is a most valuable – a most sacred right – a right, which we hope and believe, is to liberate the world.

I think one of the great things about the United States has been our ability to maintain a distinction between our military and domestic law enforcement.

Many people listen to what I have to say and I appear a lot in media, so therefore I influence a lot of people and therefore I have a bigger responsibility because I have a bigger platform.

There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.

Governments are not representative. They have their own power, serving segments of the population that are dominant and rich.

Kings will be tyrants from policy, when subjects are rebels from principle.

It’s not that every single thing that happens on Facebook is gonna be good. This is humanity. People use tools for good and bad, but I think that we have a clear responsibility to make sure that the good is amplified and to do everything we can to mitigate the bad.

Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.

I’ve said many a time that I think the Un-American Activities Committee in the House of Representatives was the most un-American thing in America!

The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf.

The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life.

The last thing I wanted to do was to be a wartime President.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

Every family should have the right to spend their money, after tax, as they wish, and not as the government dictates. Let us extend choice, extend the will to choose and the chance to choose.

Our brand of democracy is hard. But I can promise that a year from now, when I no longer hold this office, I’ll be right there with you as a citizen – inspired by those voices of fairness and vision, of grit and good humor and kindness that have helped America travel so far.

Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

There might be some serious fun in politics.

Always do everything you ask of those you command.

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

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

I consider anybody a twerp who hasn’t read ‚Democracy in America‘ by Alexis de Tocqueville. There can never be a better book than that one on the strengths and vulnerabilities inherent in our form of government.

He who does not prevent a crime when he can, encourages it.

It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope.

It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.

All the blood is drained out of democracy – it dies – when only half the population votes.

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.

Our future cannot depend on the government alone. The ultimate solutions lie in the attitudes and the actions of the American people.

And now, of course this is another thing I didn’t count on, that now as the governor of the state of California, I am selling California worldwide. You see that? Selling.

Democracy is the art and science of running the circus from the monkey cage.

Republics decline into democracies and democracies degenerate into despotisms.

Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.

Mission presidents hold keys of responsibility for the welfare, safety, and success of their missionaries.

I think you have a moral responsibility when you’ve been given far more than you need, to do wise things with it and give intelligently.

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.

Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses.

The ballot is stronger than the bullet.

Africans require, want, the franchise on the basis of one man one vote. They want political independence.

When there is a lack of honor in government, the morals of the whole people are poisoned.

Death is not natural for a state as it is for a human being, for whom death is not only necessary, but frequently even desirable.

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint.

Man is not free unless government is limited.

Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its only safe depositories.

Without a moral framework, there is nothing left but immediate self-indulgence by some and the path of least resistance by others. Neither can sustain a free society.

Be the chief but never the lord.

There will be no end to the troubles of states, or of humanity itself, till philosophers become kings in this world, or till those we now call kings and rulers really and truly become philosophers, and political power and philosophy thus come into the same hands.

A State without the means of some change is without the means of its conservation.

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.

It means, people who are in high and responsible positions, if they go against righteousness, righteousness itself will get transformed into a destroyer.

We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.

Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.

It’s in responsibility that most people find the meaning that sustains them through life. It’s not in happiness. It’s not in impulsive pleasure.

I try to lead by example, being conscious of others and being responsible.

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.

We did not choose to be the guardians of the gate, but there is no one else.

In a democracy, allegations will never improve situations. So, I’m against allegations, but I always welcome criticism.