The governments of the present day have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments‘ plans.

I have often thought that if a rational Fascist dictatorship were to exist, then it would choose the American system.

Nowadays, politically, everybody is promising everything. That’s the only way you can get elected.

The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the goverment.

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

I love being able to be political without any political affiliation.

There’s some jerks. There’s some big egos. There are a few that think they’re one of the Founding Fathers… in both parties.

For any young democracy, the most difficult but important step is burying the legacy of tyranny and establishing an economy and a government and institutions that abide by the rule of law. Every country faces challenges to the rule of law, including my own.

There might be some serious fun in politics.

In the end, that’s what this election is about. Do we participate in a politics of cynicism or a politics of hope?

Law is always better than war.

I have no doubt but that the misery of the lower classes will be found to abate whenever the Government assumes a freer aspect and the laws favor a subdivision of Property.

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.

Real politics are the possession and distribution of power.

A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there’s no question about it.

It’s been my experience in politics that you can try and plan it out: ‚I’m going to hit the three ball which will hit the eight ball.‘ You’ve just got to go run and try to do everything right. And then have a little luck.

Compromise used to mean that half a loaf was better than no bread. Among modern statesmen it really seems to mean that half a loaf; is better than a whole loaf.

If you believe that tax policy has nothing to do with the economy, then you’re pretty much like a rock, only dumber.

There are seasons in every country when noise and impudence pass current for worth; and in popular commotions especially, the clamors of interested and factious men are often mistaken for patriotism.

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.

And frankly, I don’t understand – I mean, I’m obviously a card-carrying Democrat – but I can’t understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney, except maybe Mrs. Romney.

I’m a singer, not a politician, and I think you don’t want the two to get confused. It’s not OK to be on CNN talking about people starving and then tell the interviewer that your new album is coming out in six months.

Nixon was so crooked that he needed servants to help him screw his pants on every morning.

Germany has reduced savagery to a science, and this great war for the victorious peace of justice must go on until the German cancer is cut clean out of the world body.

There are massive efforts on the part of the internet’s corporate owners to try to direct it to become a technique of marginalisation and control.

Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while, and then have a hell of a close.

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

I will continue to believe that Israel’s security is paramount.

I’ll be honest: I haven’t ruled politics out.

I always tell people that religious institutions and political institutions should be separate. So while I’m telling people this, I myself continue with them combined. Hypocrisy!

Nothing could make me forget what the Reagan years had actually been like.

I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.

No man should be in politics unless he would honestly rather not be there.

Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative.

Putin sought to destabilize Ukraine’s economy.

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

We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

I don’t think I would run for president.

To some degree it matters who’s in office, but it matters more how much pressure they’re under from the public.

There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.

For the introduction of a new kind of music must be shunned as imperiling the whole state; since styles of music are never disturbed without affecting the most important political institutions.

The truth of the matter is that Iran is a cancer.

I once told Nixon that the Presidency is like being a jackass caught in a hail storm. You’ve got to just stand there and take it.

I think our politicians could learn a lot from Mandela.

I was losing interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known.

There was never a good war, or a bad peace.

Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.

Republicans are men of narrow vision, who are afraid of the future.

I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American.

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

Among a people generally corrupt liberty cannot long exist.

The very word ‚secrecy‘ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths, and to secret proceedings.

Obama’s not Jesus. He can’t walk on water.

The public is not to see where power lies, how it shapes policy, and for what ends. Rather, people are to hate and fear one another.

Politics is the womb in which war develops.

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it.

It makes sense for Japan to pursue a more independent role in the world, following Latin America and others in freeing itself from U.S. domination.

When a new source of taxation is found it never means, in practice, that the old source is abandoned. It merely means that the politicians have two ways of milking the taxpayer where they had one before.

Politics, as a practise, whatever its professions, has always been the systematic organization of hatreds.

For the bureaucrat, the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.