The legal right of the Southern people to reclaim their fugitives I have constantly admitted. The legal right of Congress to interfere with their institution in the states, I have constantly denied.

Religion has the right to express its opinion in the service of the people, but God in creation has set us free: it is not possible to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.

We’re so immaturely cynical as a culture. We’re not wise enough to look at an institution like marriage and to really things about what it means and what it signifies. It signifies a place where people can tie the ropes of their lives together so that they’re stronger. It signifies a place where people can tell the truth to one another.

As a man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights.

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who would want to live in an institution?

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

Marriage is a wonderful institution, but who wants to live in an institution?

Being elected to Congress, though I am very grateful to our friends for having done it, has not pleased me as much as I expected.

We have talked long enough in this country about equal rights. It is time now to write the next chapter – and to write it in the books of law.

The answer to many of the domestic problems we face is not higher taxes and more spending. It is less waste, more results and greater freedom for the individual American to earn a rightful place in his own community – and for States and localities to address their own needs in their own ways, in the light of their own priorities.

I have said a hundred times, and I have no inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought to be no inclination in the people of the free States to enter into the slave States, and to interfere with the question of slavery at all. I have said that always.

I don’t believe in nepotism. I don’t much like the idea of parents who interfere.

I think there are a whole host of things that are civil rights, and then there are other things – such as traditional marriage – that, I think, express a community’s concern and regard for a particular institution.

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

The constitution vests the power of declaring war in Congress; therefore no offensive expedition of importance can be undertaken until after they shall have deliberated upon the subject and authorized such a measure.

When you look at a corporation, just like when you look at a slave owner, you want to distinguish between the institution and the individual. So slavery, for example, or other forms of tyranny, are inherently monstrous. The individuals participating in them may be the nicest guys you can imagine.

When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we are, I acknowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying.

I worked with Congress on legislation, gave speeches to CEOs, military generals and Hollywood executives. But I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families – and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way. So, yeah, I planted a garden and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids.

Only free men can negotiate. A prisoner cannot enter into contracts.

This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer.

Often one postulates that a priori, all states are equally probable. This is not true in the world as we see it. This world is not correctly described by the physics which assumes this postulate.

I think the positive competition between states in India is one of the most positive dynamics that the country has.

As soon as I go out into the world, I belong, in a way, to everyone else. It’s legal to follow me. It’s legal to stalk me at the beach. And I can’t call the police or ask them to leave.

Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress; but I repeat myself.

The constitutions of most of our States assert that all power is inherent in the people; that… it is their right and duty to be at all times armed.

There is a piece of me that likes to fondly imagine my maverick and rebellious nature. But, more accurately, I like to have a nice and cosy institution that I can rub up against a little bit.

States are not moral agents.

War is the greatest plague that can afflict humanity, it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.

There is but one way for a president to deal with Congress, and that is continuously, incessantly, and without interruption. If it is really going to work, the relationship has got to be almost incestuous.

Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States – old as well as new – North as well as South.

It was the Congress that imposed ‚Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,‘ it was certainly my position, my recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred.

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

Remember a few years ago when Congress declared that the sauce on a slice of pizza should count as a vegetable in school lunches? You don’t have to be a nutritionist to know that this doesn’t make much sense.

Both free speech rights and property rights belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.

I don’t think marriage is a civil right, but I think that being able to transfer property is a civil right.

You should see what our Founding Fathers used to say to each other and in the early part of our nation. But what they were able to do, especially in Philadelphia in 1787, four months, they argued about what a House should be, what a Senate should be, the power of the president, the Congress, the Supreme Court. And they had to deal with slavery.

I believe that in the pursuit of education, individual desire is more influential than institution, and personal faith more forceful than faculty.

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

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

Most emissions aren’t caused by individuals, they’re caused by corporations and states.

My son Emilio is running for Congress to continue the fight for social justice.

The darkness, the loop of negative thoughts on repeat, clamours and interferes with the music I hear in my head.

If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?

It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.

There is no distinctly American criminal class – except Congress.

I love Brad in every state.

Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation.

Most members of Congress are politicians. They’re bores.

States are as the men, they grow out of human characters.

I believe in that old adage that ‚as goes California, so goes the country.‘

I’m substantially concerned about the policy directions of the space agency. We have a situation in the U.S. where the White House and Congress are at odds over what the future direction should be. They’re sort of playing a game and NASA is the shuttlecock that they’re hitting back and forth.