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

Democracy passes into despotism.

Some people will have to be afraid. Those who plunder the nation, deliver injustice, will have to feel scared of me. And I am not afraid of admitting this. Government cannot be so lenient that it forgives them.

The game of golf would lose a great deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green.

No such thing as a man willing to be honest – that would be like a blind man willing to see.

When our governments want to sell us a course of action, they do it by making sure it’s the only thing on the agenda, the only thing everyone’s talking about. And they pre-load the ensuing discussion with highly selected images, devious and prejudicial language, dubious linkages, weak or false ‚intelligence‘ and selected ‚leaks.‘

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.

My government is working for the common man. Our priority is the poor of the country. We want good governance through a dynamic and seamless government.

An unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.

If someone lies, well, you had a choice to trust that person or not. I think the way my father raised me, well, he trusted everybody. And that worked for him.

Religion flourishes in greater purity, without than with the aid of Government.

We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral.

Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it.

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.

Netscape was able to get the government working on its behalf.

This nuclear option is ultimately an example of the arrogance of power.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Lettin‘ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier ‚n puttin‘ it back in.

The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.

Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.

Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.

The surest way to remain poor is to be an honest man.

I have hobbies. I like being active. I like to surf a lot, play a little bit of golf.

Governments don’t control people like they used to.

Political necessities sometime turn out to be political mistakes.

How can sincerity be a condition of friendship? A taste for truth at any cost is a passion which spares nothing.

I have been a firm believer in the federal structure of our country as enshrined in the Constitution.

Tricks and treachery are the practice of fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest.

Sure there are dishonest men in local government. But there are dishonest men in national government too.

You have to listen very carefully and tell the truth if you are going to get a paranoid person to open up to you.

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.

Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that, once it is competently programmed and working smoothly, it is completely honest.

I was brought up differently than the average American child because the average child is brought up expecting to be happy.

The rights of persons, and the rights of property, are the objects, for the protection of which Government was instituted.

Free government is the most difficult of all government. But it is everlastingly true that the plain people will make fewer mistakes than any other group of men, no matter how powerful.

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

I’m really trying to dredge up what one might call intellectual and moral material. For example, when do you realize that you are an American? What age does that happen to you? When do you realize what religion your parents practice? When does it all become conscious? I was interested in exploring all of that.

Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.

The government is us; we are the government, you and I.

Do not be very upright in your dealings for you would see by going to the forest that straight trees are cut down while crooked ones are left standing.

Policy makers who have never served in the military continue to use the military to lead social change in this country.

The punishment which the wise suffer who refuse to take part in the government, is to live under the government of worse men.

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.

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.

And the cornerstone of my economic policies, when I first got elected, was cutting taxes on everybody on who paid taxes.

I want to be a man who is truthful and who won’t let pride get in the way of my ripping myself open to my partner and saying, ‚Here I am. This is me.‘ I feel there’s something powerful when a man reaches a point in his life when he can be completely vulnerable.

The Catholic and the Communist are alike in assuming that an opponent cannot be both honest and intelligent.

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

It’s easy being a humorist when you’ve got the whole government working for you.

Democracy is a daring concept – a hope that we’ll be best governed if all of us participate in the act of government. It is meant to be a conversation, a place where the intelligence and local knowledge of the electorate sums together to arrive at actions that reflect the participation of the largest possible number of people.

A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned.

Alimony – the ransom that the happy pay to the devil.

The military can buy our diplomats some time.

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

How can we help President Obama?

Falsehood is cowardice, the truth courage.

I believe that in every country the people themselves are more peaceably and liberally inclined than their governments.

I think Americans are very patriotic.

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

Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

I guess there is nothing that will get your mind off everything like golf. I have never been depressed enough to take up the game, but they say you get so sore at yourself you forget to hate your enemies.